Environmental and Energy Studies

After having completed my Masters from Stanford University in Energy Systems, Combustion, and Chemical Thermodynamics, I decided to try something new but still related to my original field of research, energy.  I have been a visiting researcher at CEU since July studying energy efficiency in buildings and primarily focused on energy efficiency modeling scenarios for UNEP and GEA.

Sergio Tirado Herrero (Spain, 1978) holds a BSc in Environmental Science and an MSc in Global Change and Sustainable Development from the University of Alcala (Madrid). His experience in Central and Eastern Europe dates back to 2001, when he joined the Regional Environmental Center for Central and Eastern Europe (REC) as a project assistant. Between 2002 and 2008 he was a researcher in the Environmental Economics Research Group at the University of Alcala, in projects ranging from the cost-benefit analysis of strategic national energy programmes to the economic valuation of Spain's ecosystem services. Between 2008 and 2013 he was enroled as PhD student in the Environmental Sciences and Policy Doctoral Program and has been an active member of CEU's Center for Climate and Sustainable Energy Policy (3CSEP). His PhD dissertation - "Fuel poverty alleviation as a co-benefit of climate investments: evidence from Hungary" - was succesfylly defended in February 2013 and awarded a summa cum laude.

Veronika Czakó completed her PhD at the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy at Central European University in 2011. Her thesis, entitled "Multilevel governance of climate change action: a comparative case study of front-runner cities in the UK and Hungary" focused on climate policy in the urban context.

Currently Veronika is working on the implementation of EU energy efficiency policies as Scientific Support Officer at the Institute for Energy and Transport at the European Commission Joint Research Centre, in Ispra, Italy.

In the 2010/2011 academic year Veronika carried out research as part of the Policy Fellowship Program of the Open Society Institute Local Government and Public Service Reform Initiative. Her policy study "Drowning the suburb: settlement planning and climate change adaptation in the Hungarian metropolitan area context" uncovered the conflicts between urban planning and the need for adaptation to climate change based on the example of the June 2010 floods in the North-Eastern region of Hungary.

While at CEU, at the 3CSEP research centre Veronika was responsible for projects carried out for UNEP and WWF.

Dr. Korytarova completed her PhD in May 2010. Her dissertation focuses on energy efficiency in public buildings, case study Hungary and presents several alternative low-energy pathways for 2030. The thesis shows the importance of deep retrofits, the planning of the transition towards low-energy future through gradual improvement of minimum requirements for building renovation as well as the risk related to the massive renovation to the suboptimal level of retrofit, which is demonstrated by quantifying the lock-in effect.