I am a socio-economist and technology researcher dedicated to working towards a speedy and just sustainable energy transition. My work mainly concerns energy innovations, digitalization, infrastructure, critical raw materials, and advanced materials, as well as political economy issues such as power centralization and oligopolies. My research focuses on the risks and opportunities posed by contemporary challenges, particularly the hard-to-crack structural ones, which I believe to be both social and technical. On one hand, I analyze technological challenges; for example, identifying drivers and barriers to technologies such as electricity grids, energy storage, and other flexibility measures. On the other hand, I also study the social side of the energy transition: locally, exploring how organization and culture contribute to a successful transition, and on a macro level, examining how regulation, standards, policies, and structural economic factors influence the transition.
My toolbox includes quantitative methods such as econometrics and qualitative methods such as interviews and policy analysis.
At the Institute of Technology Assessment (ITA) of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, I conduct basic research on the co-evolution of energy technologies and infrastructure and their societal consequences. Moreover, I provide consultancy to policymakers, including ministries as well as the European and Austrian Parliaments, offering insights into emerging technologies.
Recent and upcoming presentations
06/2024 European Society for Ecological Economics (ESEE) Conference, Pontevedra Spain
06/2024 TA24, Annual Conference of the Institute of Technology Assessment, Vienna Austria
04/2024 European Parliament, Panel for the Future of Science and Technology (STOA)
11/2023 University of Stuttgart, Department “Sociology of Technology, Risk and Environment”
- invited talk in departmental seminar on “Blackout prevention in Austria”