Climate-Neutral Design for Buildings and Transport

Natalia Barbour served as a Postdoctoral Associate in MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning after completing her PhD in civil engineering with a transportation focus from the University of South Florida. Her academic journey includes a BS in Physics from Adam Mickiewicz University, an MS in Transportation Engineering from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and postdoctoral training at MIT. Her research focuses on travel behavior, particularly examining shared and new mobility adoption patterns, transportation safety, and sustainable mobility. Her exceptional work earned numerous recognitions, including the Student of the Year Award and Best Dissertation Award from CTECH at Cornell University, selection for the Eno Leadership Development Conference as one of the top 20 graduate students in Transportation (2018), and recognition as an Emerging Leader in Transportation by NYU Rudin Center (2019). After her postdoctoral work at MIT, she joined Delft University of Technology as an assistant professor before moving to her current position as Assistant Professor of Transportation and Smart Cities at the University of Central Florida, where she continues to advance research in sustainable mobility and transportation equity.

Mirjam Harmelink serves as the manager of the Urban Energy Institute at TU Delft, bringing over 25 years of expertise in climate change and energy systems. Her academic foundation includes a Master's degree in Technology and Innovation from TU Eindhoven, which she completed between 1991-1993. Her career spans significant roles, including work at Ecofys, where she contributed to groundbreaking research on energy efficiency and market barriers, and the National Institute of Climate and Health in the Netherlands. As an independent consultant and project manager for 12 years, she developed expertise in quantifying effects of market failures in end-user energy and evaluating sustainability of district heating networks. At TU Delft, she focuses on urban energy systems, heating transition strategies, and policy evaluation, while contributing to international energy efficiency assessments. Her work has influenced European energy and climate policies, particularly in areas of district heating systems and urban energy transitions.

Samantha Eleanor Tanzer serves as an Assistant Professor and Delft Technology Fellow in the Department of Engineering Systems and Services at TU Delft's Faculty of Technology, Policy and Management. Her academic journey includes a BA in Economics from Swarthmore College, an MSc in Industrial Ecology (summa cum laude) jointly from Leiden University and TU Delft, and a PhD (cum laude) from TU Delft focusing on Negative Emissions in the Industrial Sector. Her groundbreaking research examines carbon dioxide removal systems and the complexities of greenhouse gas accounting, with particular emphasis on biomass with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) and direct air capture. Her work has garnered over 376 citations, with significant contributions to understanding carbon removal in industrial sectors, including pioneering research on concrete decarbonization and chemical sector emissions reduction. Before joining TU Delft as Assistant Professor in October 2023, she worked at Bellona Europa, where she helped develop foundational principles for defining and governing carbon dioxide removal. Her expertise has made her a valued advisor to national and international governments and organizations on carbon removal policy and implementation. Her recent work includes developing temporally explicit life cycle CO2 accounting methods and investigating the influence of different assumptions in removal systems modeling.