"Climate issues are the most pressing issues of our time, underpinning other wicked problems such as poverty and inequality. The urgency of these matters, as well as my long-time interest in the environment, were some of my motivations to pursue the Earth Sciences Master’s programme. Since I had a social sciences background from my Bachelor’s, I was looking for a programme in which I could enter the realm of the natural sciences to learn about the Earth system, its climate- and geological processes. The global environmental challenges that we face are highly complex. Thus, my objective was to acquire knowledge from these two branches of science to tackle these challenges in a holistic manner that does justice to their complexity."
"This Master’s programme fulfilled my expectations, as it introduces students to subjects like climate systems, environmental economics, land-use processes and spatial analysis, in addition to providing skills like programming and the use of GIS. I was able to follow it, despite coming from a different background - which was a relief. In addition to the specialisation track in Global Environmental Change and Policy, it was very nice to be able to further specialise in another stream in our second year, when I chose the water stream. This meant having very interesting courses like Water Risks, where we learned about hydrological extremes such as droughts and floods (and their interactions!) or Water Governance, where we had lively, critical discussions. I also had the amazing opportunity to travel to Mozambique during my thesis as part of a project that is constructing a global coastal flood risk and adaptation response model. This was very special, and I learned a lot from this experience."
"After graduating I became a Research Assistant at the United Nations University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS), where I had been working as a Student Assistant for a few months during my second year of the Master’s. There, I’m assisting in the European Drought Observatory for Resilience and Adaptation (EDORA) project, which aims to support the European Drought Observatory by establishing a multi-sector risk assessment methodology of drought impacts in the European Union. In this project, I am developing conceptual models of drought risk for different sectors and systems, based on scientific literature and expert consultations. This job really reflects the interdisciplinarity of my studies and helps build the bridge between science and policy."
