Biography

• 2021 –  today: PhD on the social acceptance of airborne wind energy  
• 2019 –  2020: M.Sc. Environmental Psychology, Rijksuniversiteit Groningen
  
• 2018 –  2019: M.Sc. Clinical Psychology, Leiden University
  
• 2014 –  2017: B.Sc. Psychology, Erasmus University Rotterdam

Biography

Helena is a behavioural scientist who likes spending time in nature, gardening, cooking, and exploring different countries and cities. After obtaining a BSc in Psychology from Erasmus University Rotterdam and an MSc in Clinical Psychology from Leiden University, she decided that she wanted to devote her career to creating a more sustainable world and switched to the field of environmental psychology. She graduated with an MSc in Environmental Psychology from Rijksuniversiteit Groningen in July 2020 and subsequently did a 4-month internship in the research group “Psychology for Sustainable Cities” at the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. In her internship, she gained experience with conducting systematic literature reviews and answering applied questions (e.g., “How can customers be encouraged to treat loaned products more carefully/sustainably?”) on the basis of empirical evidence. Through the internship, she heard of the opportunity to do a PhD on the social acceptance of airborne wind energy at TU Delft. She is now working in an interdisciplinary team of engineers and social scientists to assess how different stakeholders and people perceive and interact with airborne wind energy, which is important to understand for a successful deployment of the technology. Her PhD research is part of the NWO-funded research consortium NEON, in which social and natural scientists work together on accelerating the energy and mobility transition within the Netherlands.

Read more