Kerstin Damerau

About

As a research associate at the Department of Global Development, Kerstin Damerau has a strong interest in contributing to the development of applicable approaches to efficient natural resource use and nutrition-sensitive agriculture. Her overall research objective is to identify pathways towards sustainable food production that provide dietary nutrient supplies sufficient to sustain healthy human life while staying within global environmental boundaries. Using quantitative modelling and scenario development approaches, she is particularly interested in advancing current environmental footprinting approaches. Beside assessing impacts of the agricultural sector on freshwater and land resources, her research also focuses on the minimization and sequestration of greenhouse gas emissions while improving average dietary quality particularly in low- and mid-income countries.

Before joining Global Development, Kerstin held postdoctoral positions at Harvard University and TU Berlin and most recently served as an independent consultant for ICRAF and The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, modelling major environmental impacts of food production and exploring possible trajectories towards achieving food security in Southern Asia and Eastern Africa. Further, her work includes assessing the potential of improved agricultural practices as well as efficient waste management within the agricultural sector. Kerstin’s research aims at understanding, securing and optimizing food production for human and environmental health, and consequently the development of coherent recommendations for policy-makers from the local to the global scale.