PhD Students

Kathleen Bohan is a PhD student at the Central European University’s Department of Environmental Science and Policy. She holds a Bachelor of Engineering degree in Biological and Environmental Engineering (Dalhousie University - Halifax, Canada) and a Master of Applied Science Degree in Aerospace Engineering (University of Toronto, Canada). Having worked for five years in a number of engineering roles on the development of industrial gas turbines she has chosen to pursue a PhD at the CEU to develop a specialization in energy security policy with a focus on systems analysis and energy systems transitions.

Márton holds a Bachalor degree in International Rural Innovation and Development from the Netherlands and M.Sc. degree in Agricultural Economics and Management from St. Stephan University Gödöllő. From October 2007 to March 2010 he was working on rural and community development projects. From March 2010 he became an attaché for environmental affairs at the Permanent Representation of Hungary to the EU during Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. He joined the CEU community as a PhD student in September 2011. His PhD research topic is about the integration of environmental objectives into the European Common Agricultural Policy.

Yolanda Ariadne Collins holds a Masters in Research in International Environmental Policy and Politics (Distinction) from the University of Westminster, London and a Bachelor's degree in International Relations from the University of Guyana. Prior to joining the Doctoral school of Environmental Sciences and Policy, she interned at Green Alliance, an environmental charity and thinktank in London, England. She is particularly interested in social justice issues, climate change and Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation (REDD+) initiatives globally. More specifically, she is interested in the manner in which this initiative is being implemented in her home country, Guyana.

Aniko has started her PhD with the CEU in 2011. For the past fifteen years she has developed and implemented various energy efficiency targeted finance mechanism and programmes, with special focus on supporting middle/middle-low income households to have access to affordable financing so they can implement energy efficiency and renewable energy refurbishment projects. She has been working with over 7,000 households and various communities (eco towns) to engage them in carrying out energy efficient improvements on their homes and by now the finance programmes that she developed support close to 100,000 families. Aniko has a wide range of professional experience from the corporate to development banks, civil service and international climate negotiations.

Alexander Ghaleb is a U.S. Army captain. He has written several articles dealing with issues related to national security, and has studied at top European universities in Germany and France. He holds a BBA in international business from the George Washington University, an MA in strategic security studies from the National Defense University, and he is a recent graduate of the Program on Advanced Security Studies at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies.

Naira Harutyunyan is a PhD Candidate at the CEU Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy, conducting research on privatization of public services in Armenia. She holds her MSc in Cooperation and Development from University Institute of Advanced Studies (Italy), MSc in Environmental Sciences and Policy from the Central European University (Hungary), and MSc in Management of Economic Systems from Yerevan University of Management and Informatics. Naira has worked at various research and policy entities, as well as the Ministry of Trade and Economic Development and the Armenian Development Agency. She also has an extensive work experience within Armenian NGOs. Her research area includes climate change adaptation and mitigation, privatization of public services, water, carbon markets, clean development mechanism (CDM), energy efficiency, and renewables. She is widely published in the area, recently co-authoring the UNEP GEO-5, IEA Energy Efficiency Governance Handbook, etc. She is also active in professional scientific organizations, such as Armenian Environmental Network and Policy Forum Armenia serving as a member of the Research Committee.

Jessica Jewell is a PhD candidate at Central European University where her research focuses on energy security under long-term energy scenarios and as a driver for policy change. More broadly, she is interested in the interaction between national energy priorities and global energy objectives. She works in the Energy Program at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis.

Agnes Kelemen is an environmental economist with an MSc in Economics from the Budapest University of Economic Sciences (Corvinus University of Budapest). She has worked as an environmental economist, initially as a part-time research assistant at the Harvard Institute for International Development Environmental Economics and Policy Program in Hungary, and then as a researcher at the Hungarian Environmental Economics Centre. She later spent several years working on climate change issues within the Hungarian public administration, especially on issues related to the EU emissions trading scheme and international climate negotiations. Most recently she has been working on integrating climate and environmental considerations into EU regional development policy at the European Commission. Her main interests are in environmental economics, ecological economics and climate change and sustainable energy.

Johan Lilliestam is a PhD student at the CEU. He writes his thesis about energy security in a future climate-friendly European power system partly based on imports of renewable electricity from North Africa. Mr. Lilliestam's wider research interest is European energy and climate policy, with a special focus on imports of renewable electricity from North Africa. He currently works at Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Potsdam, Germany, and at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA) in Laxenburg, Austria. Johan Lilliestam holds a Master of Science degree in Environmental Sciences from Göteborg University, Sweden, and a Master of Arts degree in Environmental Management from Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.

Diane is a passionate environmental expert in the field of conservation. Driven by her enthusiasm to make a valuable contribution to nature protection in Lebanon, she has fund-raised and managed many NGO projects in eco-tourism, biodiversity research and monitoring, and rural development. Diane graduated in 2009 from the joint Erasmus MSc. degree in Environmental Sciences Policy and Management granted by CEU, University of Manchester and Lund University, with distinction on her thesis work. She has published her research work on protected areas and biosphere reserves in the Levant region, and is now pursuing her second academic year of PhD with interests in protected area planning, management effectiveness and evaluation, international conservation and development agendas/programs and the related science-policy interface.

Alina’s research focuses on the conflict and coexistence of large carnivores and people in the Romanian Carpathians. She is particularly interested in spatial and temporal patterns of conflict as well as the attitudes of various interest groups towards carnivores and their management. Before joining the PhD programme Alina studied and worked in Romania, Hungary, South Africa and the UK. Her professional experience spans the business, academic and NGO sectors and includes a diversity of roles from consulting, teaching and capacity building, to ecological surveys and project management. In her spare time she enjoys reading, hiking in the mountains, travelling and photography.

Having obtained an MA in Political Sciences and International Relations (KU Leuven) and an MA in Nationalism Studies (CEU), in 2009 turned his attention to Environmental Studies. His research focuses on issues of legitimacy, social cohesion and mobilisation in environmental politics. In particular, he is concentrating on how these issues play in U.S. environmental Climate Change and Energy political discourse.