Simona Gradinaru

Hello! My name is Simona R. Gradinaru, I work as Land System Scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute WSL. I have studied and worked at the University of Bucharest, where I defended my PhD in 2015 and then led two postdoctoral projects on integrating food provision in urban policies. In 2018, I was a visiting Fulbright Scholar at Michigan State University, where I worked on assessing the impact of policies on urbanization patterns.

My research focuses on understanding urban and peri-urban landscapes as socio-ecological systems and the processes leading to their transformation. In my work, I provide new insights into ways for landscape ecological concepts and knowledge to support planning and policy.

I am actively involved in the landscape ecology community, as Secretary General of the European chapter of International Association for Landscape Ecology (IALE-Europe), and member of Editorial Board of Landscape Ecology and Landscape Online.