Ziga Malek

Biography

Ziga Malek joined the IIASA Novel Data Ecosystems for Sustainability Research Group in the Advancing Systems Analysis Program in October 2023. Between 2015 and 2023, he was working at the Institute for Environmental Studies of the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, where he was Assistant Professor in land use and ecosystem dynamics.

Malek has more than 12 years of international experience as a researcher, lecturer, and consultant, having worked in Austria, Germany, the Netherlands, and Slovenia. He worked as a consultant for many international organizations including, among others, the European Commission Directorate-General for Trade, the European Environment Agency, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Environment Programme, the World Bank, and the Inter-American Development Bank. The focus of his work spanned a variety of different climate change, land use, and biodiversity issues. He published over 40 peer-reviewed papers and policy and technical reports, and supervised over 35 MSc students from around the world.

Malek is a trained landscape planner with a technical focus on environmental modeling and spatial analysis. He obtained his PhD in natural sciences from the University of Vienna, Austria.


Last update: 31 OCT 2023