I-CISK Accepts Young Researchers in the Project

As part of our consortium, I-CISK is happy to welcome a pool of young researchers (PhDs) – Lotte Muller, Ricardo Biella, and Sumiran Rastogi who will be intricately linked with several core activities of the project and will be instrumental in helping the project achieve its objectives. You can check our researchers’ field of work and bios on our website. Read more

Lotte Muller

Lotte obtained her bachelor’s degree in Liberal Arts and Sciences at University College Utrecht. In this degree, she could combine her interests in economics, mathematics, and statistics (alongside a little art history). In a similar trend, she completed a research master’s degree in Multidisciplinary Economics at Utrecht University. After her master’s degree, she worked as a junior lecturer at Utrecht University, while following courses from their mathematics master’s program e.g. complex network modeling, scientific computing, and parallel algorithms. Now Lotte works as a Ph.D. candidate at the VU Amsterdam, where as part of ICISK, she is interested in modeling the emergence of different feedbacks between climate services, socio-economic behavior, and climate change. Currently, she is working with the water-authority Rijnland to explore human-climate feedback during droughts.

Fun fact: Lotte’s cat is named Snellius- yes- after the new Dutch supercomputer.

Riccardo Biella

Having MSc in Disaster Risk Management & Climate Change Adaptation and a BSc in Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, Riccardo’s expertise bridges natural and social sciences. making him a valuable asset in the field of human-climate interactions. As a Ph.D. researcher working for I-CISK, Riccardo focuses on feedback and unintended consequences stemming from the interaction between climate information and adaptation. In his latest research, he explores the issue of inequity in access using system dynamic modeling, and how this can lead to maladaptive outcomes. However, he has a little secret: he used to work for an oil company!

Sumiran Rastogi

Originally from Lucknow, India, Sumiran has been studying and working in the Netherlands for past several years. After obtaining her Masters’s in Energy and Environment Science at the University of Groningen (NL), she worked for three years at the Global Center on Adaptation. Her research interests include understanding complex systems (adaptation across different spatial and temporal scales), determinants of adaptive capacity and behavior, risk perception, and uncertainty.

Sumiran is a PhD candidate at IHE Delft. Her research will look at the integration of local knowledge with scientific knowledge, the role of participation, and factors and cues that determine adaptation interventions undertaken by users. More broadly, she will also focus on trying to understand the question of equity within climate services. Fun fact: True to the stereotypes, she enjoys Bollywood dancing & movies way too much