Dr. Miriam Aczel’s expertise encompasses international energy law and policy, greenhouse gas removal technologies, local-scale clean energy, science communication, and citizen science.
Miriam holds a B.Sc. in Geography and Earth Sciences (McGill University), a Master’s in Environmental Technology (Imperial College London), and a Ph.D. in Environmental Policy (Imperial College London), At Imperial College London, she was a Presidential Ph.D. Scholar and received the Outstanding Student Achievement Award (2017) for her research on the environmental and community impacts of ‘fracking’ to extract shale gas in the UK, USA, France, China, and Algeria. She then joined the California Institute for Energy and Environment (CIEE) at the University of California, Berkeley as the inaugural McQuown Postdoctoral Fellow to research the environmental impacts of energy extraction, community energy, and global climate resilience.
Miriam is a co-founder of an educational nonprofit operating in Cambodia and an honorary research fellow at the Grantham Institute for Environmental Policy at Imperial College London. She speaks fluent French, Italian, Hebrew, and is proficient in Spanish.
At UNU-INWEH, she explores fundamental global challenges related to energy, environment, water, and health, with a focus on climate resilience and environmental justice.