Climate

Prof. Rick van der Ploeg is a university professor in Environmental Economics (part-time) and does research into which policies could ensure the mitigartion of global warming. He focuses mainly on risk analysis and tipping points, as well as on the political economy of climate policy.

Email: f.vanderploeg@uva.nl

Joyeeta Gupta is professor of Environment and Development in the Global South. Her areas of expertise are the history of climate management, its implications for development issues and how these are affecting the Global South (developing countries).

E: J.Gupta@uva.nl
T: +31 (0)152 152351

Prof. Ingo Venzke is director of the Amsterdam Center for International Law (ACIL). His work focuses on different dimensions of sustainability. For example, he has investigated the role of law in the climate crisis and its relationship with social justice. He is particularly interested in the law of the global economy and the legal structuring of unsustainable economic practices.

Dr Laura Burgers is an assistant professor at the Amsterdam Centre for Transformative Private Law (ACT). She obtained her PhD for research into the democratic legitimacy of judicial law-making in legal cases concerning climate change. The main focus of her thesis was on the tension between environmental interests and democracy that judges may be confronted with in climate-related court cases. Burgers is one of the national experts within the UN network Harmony with Nature, which focuses on the rights of nature, also known as Earth Jurisprudence. She is currently researching a transnational movement in which more and more natural areas are being given their own rights that can be enforced in court through a representative.

Rosa Uylenburg is professor of Environmental Law, specialising in nature protection law. Her areas of expertise are the enforcement of environmental law, the implementation of European environmental directives, permits ensuring compliance with environmental requirements and the integration of the environmental licensing act and nature protection law.

E: R.Uylenburg@uva.nl
T: +31 (0)20 525 4756 / 3075

Dr Bart Verheggen is a lecturer in Climate Change and Earth System Science at Amsterdam University College (AUC). His areas of expertise are climate change in a broad sense, and more specifically the carbon cycle, atmospheric chemistry, aerosols and clouds. He is also involved in science communication in the field of climate change and regularly participates in the public debate on the subject. He is the lead author of the 2020 book What Everyone Should Know About Climate Change.

E: b.verheggen@auc.nl
T: +31 (0)20 525 8271

Biodiversity & Sustainability

Franciska de Vries is professor of Earth Surface Science. Her research focuses on the crucial role soils play in ecosystem responses to global change. She specifically looks at how soil communities and their interactions with plants are affected by climate change, and we can keep our ecosystems functioning in the future. 

Annemarie van Wezel is professor of Environmental Ecology. Her areas of expertise are chemical water quality and risk assessments looking at the effects of the use of chemicals and new technologies for people and the environment. She does research in the field of micro- and nanoplastics and into the risks of reuse in the context of the circular economy.

Jef Huisman is a professor of Aquatic Microbiology. His areas of expertise are marine biology, aquatic ecology, oceanography, climate change and algae growth.

Sustainable Raw Materials

Gert-Jan Gruter is a professor by special appointment of Industrial Sustainable Chemistry. His areas of expertise cover the entire chain from sustainable raw materials (biomass refining, cascading to glucose) and CO2 as a raw material (CCU) to sustainable building blocks (monomers such as furandicarboxylic acid, ethylene glycol, glycolic acid, oxalic acid, etc.) to sustainable plastics (bio-based plastics such as PEF, PGA, PGLA, etc.).

For specific questions or to get in touch with a researcher not listed on this page, please call the UvA Press Office on +31 (0)20 525 2695 or send an email to press@uva.nl.