“As a researcher and father of two small children, I am dedicated to finding
solutions to the grand sustainability chal­lenges of the present and future generations.“

I am an environmental governance and political economy researcher at ETH Zurich and a lecturer at the Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research and the Policy Analysis and Environmental Governance group at the University of Bern. 

With my background in political economy, I have focused my entire career on identifying the drivers and outcomes of transformative processes and environmental policies to accelerate biodiversity protection, climate change mitigation, and just transition across socio-technical systems (e.g., energy, transport, food). Mainly, my interdisciplinary research centers on the impact and feasibility assessment of environmental policies and institutions in energy and agri-food systems. Furthermore, I study the politicization of clean technologies, its effects on diverse socio-economic outcomes (e.g., norms, jobs, firms, etc.), and subsequent policymaking. 

To accelerate the transformation of complex socio-technical systems in line with the Sustainable Development Goals, I aim to understand the interactions between policy, behavioral, and technological changes and their feedback on the political system. 

To do so, I employ an innovative mixed-method approach that combines quantitative and qualitative methods, such as surveys, field and natural experiments, advanced econometrics, process tracing, natural language processing and machine learning. In my outreach work, I frequently collaborate with practice partners (e.g., firms, NGOs, and public administration) and actively engage in the science-policy interface.

My research on the political economy of climate policy and the transformation of socio-technical systems – including food, energy, and transport systems – has been published in leading inter- and disciplinary journals, such as Nature Climate Change, Nature Food, Global Environmental Change, One Earth, Environmental Research Letters, Food Policy, Behavioural Public Policy, Climate Policy, or Policy and Society.

Since 2016, I have obtained funding as (co-)principal investigator and proposal coordinator for 16 research grants and transdisciplinary projects (in total EUR >1,7 Mio of own funding and additional 1.7 Mio including the funding for project partners). I have successfully led several international research projects on the political economy of climate change and food system transformation.

My research received several competitive and prestigious prizes. For instance, I received the Theodor Kocher Prize (50,000 CHF) from the University of Bern, honouring its best young researcher for outstanding and innovative scientific achievement in any faculty or field. I received the prize for my research on the political economy of climate policy and tipping points in the transformation of socio-technical systems.

Moreover, my dissertation with the title The Political Feasibility of Transformative Climate Policy – Public Opinion about Transforming Food and Transport Systems was awarded the SNIS Award 2021 for the best PhD thesis received at a Swiss University on a subject related to International Studies. In the  dissertation, I have investigated the trade-off between the political feasibility and effectiveness of climate policies with visible implications in citizens‘ everyday lives in the food and transport system.

Furthermore, during my PhD, graduate, and undergraduate studies I was awarded with several selective scholarships: PhD scholarship by the Heinrich Böll Foundation, Scholarship by Humboldt-Viadrina School of Governance, Scholarship award by Hertie School of Governance, Scholarship award by German Academic Foundation.

My research work received significant peer recognition as illustrated by the invitation to serve as head of the interdisciplinary expert commission of 42 scholars on the future of food established by the UN initiative SDSN Switzerland, contribute as lead author to several global policy assessment reports, and being invited as keynote speaker at several high-impact events, e.g., the K3 Congress of Climate Communication, the Spirit of Bern Summit, the Zeit Future Dialogue on Food and Agriculture, or the UN SDSN Swiss Food System Summit.

The food system causes up to 37 percent of all global greenhouse gases. The 1.5° and 2°C climate change targets are not achievable without transforming the food system, even if the emissions associated with all other sectors of the economy are completely reduced. However, thus far we still lack crucial knowledge about effective and politically feasible levers for accomplishing such transformation across different contexts. My research focuses on identifying and evaluating such levers. Achieving food system transformation requires the interplay of technological, behavioral, and policy innovations. Hence, I study how food policies can most effectively accelerate behavioral and technological changes, how policy-induced behavioral and technological innovations interact, and how this interplay feeds back into the political economy of food system transformation. Understanding such complex feedback dynamics is essential for accelerating systemic change. My most fundamental research motivation is thus to improve our understanding of how to trigger systemic rather than incremental change in food systems. In doing so, I take a global and comparative research perspective that combines insights from political economy, behavioral public policy, and transition studies.

In particular, animal products like red meat, and food waste contribute substantially to environmental problems and may preclude achieving the 2°C climate target, even if all other sectors are decarbonized. Yet, consumer habits, culture, and social norms play a determining role when it comes to food consumption and waste behavior. Policymakers tend to shy away from intervening in citizens’ personal lives because they fear political backlash. My research offers policy-relevant solutions to minimizing this trade-off between the effectiveness and political feasibility of food policies. For example, I study how differently designed packages of supply- and demand-side policies affect meat markets by inducing technological innovation in meat substitutes, altering the behaviors of actors across food supply chains (e.g., consumers, producers, investors), and feeding back into the political economy of food system transformation.

I am the principal investigator of a Mercator-funded project on the political economy of plant-based food supply chains and the SNIS-funded project „The political economy of meat system transformation“

In the SNIS project, I am coordinating a large transdisciplinary network of researchers (e.g., from ETH Zurich, Oeschger Centre, Princeton University, University of Bath, Exeter University, Cardiff University, Fudan University, NAHhaft Institute, University of Groningen) and decision-makers from international (e.g., FAO, OECD) and non-governmental organizations (e.g., SYSTEMIQ/FOLU coalition, Heinrich Böll foundation, WWF). Furthermore, as a principal member of the research project on the socio-ecological transformation of food systems funded by the German Environmental Agency, I co-authored several research reports about the political economy of different policies and transformation pathways for achieving climate mitigation in the food sector. I also contributed to a research project funded by the Swiss Federal Office for the Environment on food waste policymaking.

As founding director of the non-profit NAHhaft Institute for Sustainable Food Strategies, I initiated and conducted several research, consultancy, and education projects on food system transformation at the urban, national, and international level.

In 2021, I was invited to chair the expert panel on Swiss Food System Transformation initiated by SDSN Switzerland.

Climate change is arguably the biggest threat to humankind and life on earth. In my research, I study the governance and political economy of climate change mitigation by linking different strands of literature in political science, economics, sociology, psychology, and computational social sciences. Using various quantitative and qualitative methods, I seek to understand the political and economic conditions for positive tipping dynamics in transforming complex socio-technical systems, such as the food and transport system, to achieve the Paris climate targets.

Since the beginning of my academic career, I have conducted research on the transformation of complex socio-technical systems, with a special focus on climate mitigation in the food and transport sector. In my dissertation, entitled „The Political Feasibility of Transformative Climate Policy – Public Opinion about Transforming Food and Transport Systems“ (SNIS award, summa cum laude), I investigated the potential trade-off between the political feasibility and effectiveness of ambitious climate policies with visible implications for citizens’ everyday lives. Across different projects, I investigated to what extent citizens and stakeholders in distinct socio-political contexts accept measures aimed at reducing the use of fossil-fueled cars and the consumption of meat and fostering the uptake of low-carbon technologies, such as renewable energies and meat substitutes. In my work, I led comparative case studies and field- and survey experiments with more than 35,000 respondents in China, Ghana, Germany, the Netherlands, Peru, Philippines, Switzerland, and the United States.

During my research activities at the Wuppertal Institute, Mercator Institute, Hertie School, ETH Zurich, Princeton University, and the University of Bern/EAWAG, I have been involved in various research projects related to the political economy and governance of climate change mitigation.

For example, at ETH Zurich I currently lead a work package focusing on the role of agri-photovoltaics in climate mitigation as part of the interdisciplinary Speed2Zero project.

Moreover, at the Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research and Policy Analysis and Environmental Governance group at the University of Bern/EAWAG, I have co-led a work package in the SNF-funded project on “Multiplex networks in Swiss and German Climate Mitigation Policy.” In this project, we employ elite actor surveys, discourse network analysis, and computational social science methods to study changes in actor coalitions and narratives in climate change policymaking.