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Sophus zu Ermgassen

Postdoctoral Researcher, University of Oxford

I'm an ecological economist broadly focused on the themes of infrastructure sustainability, biodiversity compensation, and biodiversity finance. My academic work analyses the ecological impacts of the global infrastructure boom, and explores solutions for mitigating these impacts, including Biodiversity Net Gain in England, biodiversity offsetting, and policies addressing the root causes of infrastructure expansion such as demand reduction and monetary policy reform. I have published academic articles spanning postgrowth economics, the political economy of infrastructure and housing, rewilding, ecosystem services, environmental economics, operationalising environmental science in practice for businesses and governments, and the environmental impacts of the global demand for construction minerals. I am based at the University of Oxford.

Experience

  • –present
    PhD student, University of Kent
  • 2018–2018
    Postgraduate researcher, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv)
  • 2014–2018
    Research Assistant, The Nature Conservancy
  • 2016–2016
    Natural Capital and Ecosystem Services Consultant, AECOM

Education

  • 2017 
    University of Edinburgh, Ecological Economics
  • 2015 
    Judge Business School, Management
  • 2014 
    University of Cambridge, Zoology

Publications

  • 2018
    Ecosystem service responses to rewilding: first-order estimates from 27 years of rewilding in the Scottish Highlands, International Journal of Biodiversity Science, Ecosystem Services & Management
  • 2018
    Measuring rewilding progress, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences
  • 2017
    Is variety the spice of life? An experimental investigation into the effects of species richness on self-reported mental well-being, PloS one