Kirtika Kandel

Biography

Kirtika Kandel is a research assistant in the Migration and Sustainable Development Research Group of the IIASA Population and Just Societies Program. She is a recent graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, with a Master of Development Practice and Graduate Certificates in applied data science and geographic information science and technology. Her research interests lie at the intersection of environmental change, development economics, and policy to inform responses to displacement, relocation, and climate adaptation. She is particularly interested in the lived experiences and governance challenges associated with climate- and disaster-induced (im)mobility in rural communities across South Asia, and employs mixed-methods approaches to better understand the complex relationships between people, place, and policy.

Last update: 17 DEC 2025