“Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life.” Confucius
Since 2004 I have been head of the department of energy, transportation and environment at the German Institute for Economic Research in Berlin (DIW Berlin) and Professor of Energy Economics and Energy Policy at Leuphana University. I was professor of energy and sustainability at the Hertie School of Governance, in Berlin until 2019. From 2004 until 2009 I was professor of environmental economics at Humboldt University Berlin. My research focuses on the economic assessment of climate and energy policy strategies.
As reviewer and policy consultant I am member of numerous sustainability advisory boards and commissions. Since 2016 I am member of the German Council on the Environment, and am co-chair during my second term. I am also a member of the climate advisory boards of the cities of Hamburg and Dresden. In the High Level Group on Energy and climate I advised EU President José Manuel Barroso and act in diverse scientific advisory boards. I am member of several juries as the German Sustainability Prize as well as the German Environment Prize.
I studied economics at the University of Bielefeld in Oldenburg and at Stanford University. After completing my PhD in 1998, I worked as a researcher at the Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM) in Milan. This is also when I began working as a political consultant between in Rome and Bonn.
Upon my return to Germany, I headed a research group at the Institute for Rational Energy Use at the University of Stuttgart. In 2000 I was invited to the University of Oldenburg as assistant professor, where I headed a research team until 2004.
In 2006, I was honored as a top researcher by the German Research Foundation, the Helmholtz Association, and the Leibniz Association. This was followed in 2011 by the Urania Medal and the B.A.U.M. Environmental Award in the Science category, followed in 2016 by the German Solar Prize, Adam Smith Prize, and Vordenker Award, and in 2022 by the Bavarian Nature Conservation Prize from the Bund Naturschutz in Bayern and the Environmental Media Award from the DUH in the “Text” category. I have been a member of the German Association of the Club of Rome, serving on the executive committee since 2016.
I regularly publish my research findings in high-ranking specialist journals, books, and daily media.
I was born 1968 in Delmenhorst; I live in Berlin and Oldenburg with my husband.