Trinity Researcher Appointed to Prestigious Environmental Economics Programme

Posted on: 19 December 2014

Dr Claudia Aravena Novielli a postdoctoral researcher with the Department of Economics in the School of Social Sciences and Philosophy, has received a prestigious appointment to the Scientific Committee of the Latin American and Caribbean Environmental Economics Program (LACEEP). The LACEEP provides research grants in environmental and resource economics to Latin American and Caribbean researchers. As well as providing financial support, this programme also assists with advice and supervision from carefully selected, internationally recognized researchers and professors, such as Dr Aravena-Novielli, in order to raise and expand the skills of existing researchers, teachers and policy-makers in the region.

As a member of the Scientific Committee, Dr Aravena-Novielli will help provide guidance and mentoring to researchers, drive the creation of research capacity in environmental economics and assist in evaluation and selection of proposals for funding.

Commenting on her appointment Dr Aravena-Novielli said:

It is a huge honour to have been invited to become a member of the LACEEP Scientific Committee. I will be joining distinguished academics from the US, Latin America, Canada and Sweden to work together in creating capacity and high quality research in the field of environmental economics with the ultimate goal of finding solutions to environmental, social and economic problems such as the management of natural resources, climate change, and the causes and effects of environmental degradation in Latin America and the Caribbean. But most importantly I will have the opportunity to bring back my expertise and knowledge to this region to help in the process of building a strong research capacity of talented Latin American academics, researchers and policy makers.

Before joining the Economics Department in September 2011,  Dr Aravena-Novielli, completed her PhD at Queen’s University, Belfast and prior to that lectured at Universidad de Concepcion, Chile. Her research interests are in the areas of applied microeconomics, environmental and energy economics, renewable energy sources, energy efficiency, electric vehicles,  smart grids, energy policy, environmental valuation and behavioural economics.