Mau is responsible for the development and infrastructure of PHYSI’s software tools. She has a background in the humanities and worked in the software industry for more than ten years in various positions, including that of a full-stack developer at Hungarian web agency Cheppers and cloud engineer at US-based web hosting company Acquia. She gained experience in several popular web languages, frameworks, and cloud-based infrastructure building.  She has been working on linguistic projects for the Austrian Academy of Sciences as a Digital Humanities expert since 2019, in parallel to her work on the Naturvation spin-off project Urban Nature Explorer, which eventually became part of PHYSI’s portfolio. As the member of the team with the deepest understanding of technology, part of her work is to keep expectations down-to-earth and to maintain a healthy skepticism towards it, as tech should ultimately remain a servant of human experience.

Judit is a design strategist and researcher interested in the intersection of the designed and the natural world. She holds a Ph.D. in Environmental Sciences from Central European University. Her research investigates how design can contribute to sustaining and enhancing urban ecosystems. With a background in product design engineering and service design, she has a systems-based approach to design that she applies to work on cross-disciplinary projects and educational activities for knowledge sharing. Before engaging in scientific research, she worked as a design consultant in various domains stretching from experimental designs for biotech projects to product/service/business development for large service providers (telecommunications and financial sector). Now she is keen to utilize her practice and experiences in working for a turn in design practices to place ecology and the non-human at the forefront of urban design and placemaking activities and infuse ‘human-centeredness’ with ‘nature-basedness.’

Lena Grobusch is a researcher working on the governance of climate change adaptation in cities. After completing her BSc at the University of Utrecht in 2019, Lena was a policy trainee at the European Parliament’s Environment Committee in Brussels. She graduated from the Erasmus Mundus Joint Masters Degree in Environmental Sciences, Policy, and Management in 2022. Lena’s MSc thesis, which she wrote together with Stockholm Environment Institute, explored multi-stakeholder perspectives on how flood resilience could be enhanced in the informal settlements of Lusaka, Zambia. During her time at SEI, Lena gained experience in facilitating transdisciplinary, multi-stakeholder knowledge co-production processes. She is currently working as a research associate, contributing to projects on integrating EbA in flood risk management and mainstreaming adaptation into urban planning, and is pursuing her PhD at Ludwig-Maximilians-University of Munich (Germany). Lena’s PhD research focuses on how multilevel governance can achieve equitable adaptation outcomes and resilient urban development, by investigating how roles and responsibilities are distributed between state and non-state actors in cities across Southeast Asia.

Attila Katona is a researcher, educator, and consultant with a focus on urban transformation and circular economy with more than 10 years of experience. His qualifications include environmental engineering and economics, and he pursues a PhD in urban governance at the Central European University in Vienna with the aim to understand what systemic interventions could catalyze the deployment and scaling of nature-based solutions. He is the director of the Center for Systems Innovation, an educational and consulting company, based in Budapest. As an expert, Attila frequently works with European Union entities (European Commission, EIT KICs), universities, and various public and private clients, including cities in Europe, Canada, China, Singapore, Russia and Mongolia on urban nature and transformation. He is also enthusiastic about designing learning experiences in academic and professional settings, as well as using technology in a purposeful way for education and better governance.

Sara has been working as a researcher for environmental and sustainability projects since 2015. She has been focusing her research mostly on the role of urban nature-based solutions in addressing multiple critical sustainability challenges, particularly focusing on the socio-cultural values and benefits delivered by urban nature. Her expertise also extends to database management, data quality control and analysis, and assessment of urban ecosystem services. She is currently enrolled as a PhD student at the Central European University (Austria), investigating the potential of NBS to address pressures caused by climate change while improving human wellbeing. Sara holds a Master degree in Environmental Management and Economics and a Bachelor’s degree in Environmental Sciences and Technology from the University of Porto.

László is PHYSI’s founder, with a 30-year track record in applied research and advisory services related to sustainable development, typically in the context of integrated assessment and measurement of progress, future scenarios, global goals, adaptation and resilience, and addressing transformative change through nature-based solutions. He is Professor at the Department of Environmental Sciences and Policy of Central European University (CEU) in Vienna, Austria, and he has been affiliated with the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) in Canada since 1994, currently as Senior Fellow. He has extensive board, program development, project design and management experience in a wide variety of thematic, sectoral and organizational contexts. He led CEU’s team in the Naturvation project and followup work with other institutional partners. ​​László has a PhD from the University of Minnesota (2002), a Masters in Natural Resources Management from the University of Manitoba (1994) and a Master of Science in Agronomy from the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (1988).

Lilla gained her master’s degree in Environmental Science and Policy at Central European University (2019) where she specialised in sustainable development and the adaptive management of socio-ecological systems (SES). She joined the research team of the EU’s Naturvation project examining nature-based solutions in urban settings at several stages of the research process as data collector and research assistant. As a freelancer, she collaborated on a publication for EU policy making focusing on the role of biodiversity in the EU’s green recovery, supported the establishment of a sustainability focused school in Budapest and worked for stronger regional collaboration on SDGs in the Visegrad group at a Budapest based youth organisation.  Besides her background and great enthusiasm about creating socially and environmentally sustainable cities, Lilla has strong organisational and operational skills she got as a project manager and as an administrative lead at several educational institutions.