Prof Julia Steinberger

Professor of Societal Challenges of Climate (FGSE), University of Lausanne

Personal Profile

Focus

Julia Steinberger teaches in the interdisciplinary areas of Ecological Economics and Industrial Ecology. Her research examines the connections between resource use (energy and materials, greenhouse gas emissions) and societal performance (economic activity and human wellbeing). She is interested in quantifying the current and historical linkages between resource use and socioeconomic parameters, and identifying alternative development pathways to guide the necessary transition to a low-carbon society.

Background

Prof. Steinberger has been Professor of Societal Challenges of Climate Change at the University of Lausanne since 2020. Previously, she worked at the University of Leeds. For her research project ‘Living Well Within Limits’, which investigated how universal human well-being might be achieved within planetary boundaries, she received the Leverhulme Research Leadership Award. As a Senior Researcher at the Institute for Social Ecology in Vienna (SEC), she studied sustainable cities and the links between material consumption and economic performance. She is Lead Author for the IPCC’s 6th Assessment Report with Working Group 3.