Dr Monika Zurek

About

Dr Monika Zurek is Associate Professor and Group Leader at the Environmental Change Institute (ECI) at the University of Oxford and a member of the ECI Food System Transformation Group. Her research focuses on food systems, agriculture and climate change, and the future of food.

Dr Zurek is involved in, and leads on, a number of projects within the Food Systems Group at the ECI including co-leading the Foresight4Food (F4F) initiative. She also sat on the coordination team of the UK's cross-government Global Food Security Programme on the Resilience of the UK Food System.

Prior to joining the ECI, Dr Zurek worked with Climate Focus, a consulting firm focusing on climate change mitigation and land use issues. Before that, she was part of the Agricultural Development Team of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation managing grants to improve the environmental sustainability of agricultural systems and risk management in agriculture. She also served as an economist at the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and supported the Scenarios Working Group of the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment.

Dr Zurek started her career as a researcher at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), working on agricultural sustainability projects in Costa Rica and Mexico. She was also a lead author for various environmental assessments such as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, AR4), the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment and the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD).

Dr Zurek holds degrees from the University of Hohenheim (MSc equivalent/Diploma in agricultural biology) and Justus-Liebig-University Giessen, Germany (PhD in agricultural economics).