The first batch of graduates from the joint Master in Urban Climate and Sustainability (MUrCS) funded by the Erasmus+ programme of the European Union is the cohort of 2018 which became the Class of 2020 in November that year.
Obtained her B.Sc. in Civil Engineering from Jordan University of Science and Technology. Before joining MUrCS, Ala worked in private consultancy companies for four years focusing on infrastructure networks‘ design and development in Jordan and the wider Middle East. She also participated in various conferences and workshops focused on endorsing eco-tourism and sustainability in Jordan, and supported Feynan Ecolodge in promoting sustainable destinations. Her research interests are facilitating the reimagining of infrastructure as a living component of the urban environment, interactive planning and sustainable resource management. Her master thesis approached the topic of ecosystem services in old canals.
Holds a B.Sc. in Urban Planning from Universidad Simon Bolivar where he later was an adjunct lecturer following his postgraduate studies in Urban Design at Universidad Central de Venezuela. With practical experience since 2012; combining masterplanning, infrastructure/urban design, strategic analysis and planning policy in Venezuela, Panama, and Mexico, during MUrCS he collaborated with Ramboll in Finland and Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) in the UK on climate finance and climate action data & research of cities in EMEA. Carlos' research interest encompasses the future-proofing of urban systems, actors’ synergies, and sustainable design. His thesis explored the circular economy towards a climate-sensitive urbanism.
Received her Architecture and Urbanism degree from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú. She worked as a LEED and sustainability consultant in Lima, and later in Stuttgart, Germany, where she was accredited as an architect. Since 2013, she has been based in Europe working in consultancy, design and construction management. As part of MUrCS, she supported a liveability project between Finland and Denmark and graduated with distinction with her thesis on green infrastructure in Peru, she has research interests in tactical urbanism, interactive planning and water-sensitive design projects and expects to contribute further to the development of tools for climate-responsive design, NBS, and green infrastructure.
Graduated with a BSc in Environmental Science with a PGDip in Environmental Laws from University of the Punjab, Lahore. For over nine years, she has been working as an Operations Manager for Solid Waste Management (SWM) and development projects spanning over different cities with a multinational company in Pakistan. Through MUrCS, she strengthened her capacities in the domain of climate change and sustainability and conducted her thesis project on sustainable procurement towards a circular economy. Fariha's research interest focuses on environmnetal management and the applicaation of technologies and updated methods aiming at the sustainable development of cities and regions.
Urban Planner and Landscape Architect
Graduated with an Architecture Engineering degree (Parahyangan Catholic University) and a master in Landscape Architecture (Institute of Technology Bandung) in Indonesia, she has been working as a planner in Jakarta City Government since 2010 in the implementation and development of policies for spatial planning, land use and building for the Special Capital Region of Jakarta. Her main research interests involve climate-sensitive urban environments, microclimate, green indexes and urban green infrastructure. In her MUrCS thesis, she formulated a comprehensive case study in Jakarta to simulate scenarios of green infrastructures to tackle overheating.
Obtained his B.Tech in Meteorology and Climate Science from the Federal University of Technology Akure, Nigeria. He has worked within the space application domain as a geospatial data specialist on various projects relating to urban planning, disaster and environmental management in Nigeria, Sweden, France, and UK. Henry has presented his research at international conferences. Upon completing the MUrCS master thesis analysing wind charatersitics and UHIs, he recently commenced an Engineering PhD in Future Cities at The University of Edinburgh. He is keenly interested in leveraging on space-based technologies such as remote sensing and geo-information systems for sustainability and climate research.
He is a Civil Engineer with Masters in Climate Change and Sustainable Development from CEPT University, India. Kiran worked as an environmental planner and climate consultant with national and international organisations in India. He has also been a visiting faculty of GIS and has presented four research papers in various international conferences. His MUrCS thesis explored the interaction between urban form and air quality at the street level. Having completed the programme with a distinction, he has commenced working as a PhD Research Scholar on the EU H2020 GoGreen Routes project at Trinity College Dublin.
Trained as an Architect (BArch) at the BRAC University, Dhaka. For the past three years before joining MUrCS he worked in architectural design and also as a research associate at the Bengal Institute of Architecture, Landscape and Settlements, a leading architectural research institute in Bangladesh. He has worked with data leveraging on sound pollution of the mega city of Dhaka. His master thesis explored the bio-based design techniques to mitigate urban heat islands and was developed in collaboration with the CNRS in Toulousse, France. Mahmud is interested in emerging cities which require strategic designs to accommodate future demands and research on sustainable cities.
Born and raised in Pakistan, she obtained her BArch from the National College of Arts, and she joined a top architectural firm in Karachi where the foci of her practice were building and urban design vis-à-vis green building interventions, adaptive reuse and social urban resilience. Her MUrCS thesis surrounds these topics in dense and vulnerable areas. She has recently collaborated with Ramboll Finland and the World Green Building Council in projects related to sustainable urban regeneration, net-zero transitions, health and wellbeing in cities. Marina’s future research aspirations lie in the decarbonization of cities, buildings, and climate-sensitive policy in developing cities of South Asia.
Having graduated from Albanian Univesity with a Master in Architecture, she has five years of experience in the public and private sector in Albania working with planning policy, architectural and interior design. her MUrCS thesis proposes strategies based on vulnerability assessments, spatial and microclimate analyses for improving green infrastructure in cities. Megi served as a research assistant at Glasgow Caledonian University, in the Connecting Nature project (Glasgow City Council) and COSMA project. She is now a research fellow at Politecnico de Milano, interested in cross-disciplinary aspects in the interaction between the built environment, people and climate.
He obtained a BEng in Mechanical Engineering from PES University, Bengaluru and then he worked as a sustainability consultant in Mumbai (India) for more than four years. Oliver has strong expertise in green building development for the residential and the commercial sector, with know-how on sustainable architectural design development, building energy modelling and lighting design amongst others fields. His master’s thesis explored how demand-side energy policies could be strengthened through the application of behavioural insights. He shall further be continuing his PhD in exploring passive methods for urban ventilation and air pollution mitigation.
She graduated with a Bachelor in Architecture and Urbanism from Universidade Federal do Rio Gande do Sul, Brazil. Paula has worked in projects in Brazil and Ireland, being responsible for the design of neighbourhoods, parks and squares, environmental licensing in different cities of Brazil and large-scale urban infrastruture for the 2014 World Cup. She attended trainings in Germany, Spain, and joined MUrCS afterwards. Paula completed her thesis analysing microclimate policies in London. Her main research focus is urban climate legislation, green spaces and the impact of design on microclimate.
Obtained her M.Sc in Environemental Sciences from Kinnaird College for Women in the city of Lahore, Pakistan. She worked as a consultant for almost six years in Lahore, working on development projects related to buildings, roads, dams, canals, power plants, grid stations and transmission lines. She was a guest speaker at the National Conference on Pakistan’s Marine Resources and has participated in trainings and conferences focused on environmental assessment, sustainable development and circular economy in Pakistan and Finland. Samira is interested in the phenomena of climate change and environmental pollution. Her thesis focuses on waste management through circular economy.
She has a transdisciplinary background, graduated in Social Sciences from Universidade Federal do Parana and later with a BArch in Architecture and Urbanism from Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Parana in Brazil. She worked with sustainable urban development in Angola, Africa. During MUrCS she further developed knowledge on how the urban built environment impacts on people and the local ecosystem. Her thesis discussed how stakeholder collaboration/co-creation could be enhanced in the policy design for decarbonising the buildings sector. Now, better equipped, she wants to focus her work on climate adaptation in cities while being part of the urban transition makers’ network.