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Dimitris BallasView profile

Professor

• Economic Geography
• Spatial Economics
• Regional Science
• +5 more

Prof Dimitris Ballas is a Professor of Economic Geography at the University of Groningen's Faculty of Spatial Sciences since 2017. He leads the Islands and Sustainability Lab and directs the Erasmus Mundus Islands and Sustainability master's program. His expertise spans social and spatial inequalities, happiness research, spatial microsimulation, and geoinformatics. Ballas holds a PhD from the University of Leeds (2001) and has held academic positions at the University of the Aegean, University of Sheffield, and visiting roles at Harvard and Ritsumeikan University. His work emphasizes policy evaluation using GIS and spatial methods. He has authored/co-authored influential books like The Human Atlas of Europe and GIS and the Social Sciences . He serves on advisory boards for journals, research councils, and international organizations. His research bridges quantitative methods with societal issues, focusing on well-being, migration, and regional development. Education: Bachelor's in Economics (University of Macedonia, 1996) MA in GIS (University of Leeds, 1997) PhD in Geography (University of Leeds, 2001) Research Interests: Ballas investigates socio-spatial inequalities through spatial microsimulation, happiness geography, and urban green spaces' impact on well-being. He explores voting behavior, climate change mitigation, and island sustainability. Recent work includes analyzing discontent geographies and energy behavior diffusion. Awards: Nominated for Best Teaching Practice in Spatial Sciences (2023). Labs/Initiatives: Leads the Islands and Sustainability Lab and collaborates on projects like the PHOENIX and Mobi-Twin initiatives. Engages in global networks such as the European Regional Science Association and the Greek National Research Council.

• Air Pollution and Health
• Sustainable Cities
• Agent-Based Modelling
• +6 more

Tabea Sonnenschein is a Researcher at Utrecht University , affiliated with the Faculty of Geosciences and Human Geography and Spatial Planning . She is also a PhD Candidate in the Department of Population Health Sciences under the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine . Her work bridges environmental science, urban planning, and public health through advanced computational modeling. Coordinated EU-funded EXPANSE (Horizon 2020) and EXPOSOME-NL (NWO) projects. Research Associate at the MRC Epidemiology Unit at University of Cambridge, contributing to DARe Hub and UBD Policy initiatives. Research Interests Air Pollution and Health: Modeling health impacts of urban pollutants. Agent-Based Simulation: Developing tools like GenSynthPop and CellAutDisp . Urban Sustainability: Assessing interventions for resilient, low-emission cities. Recent Publications highlight her work on urban exposome, synthetic population modeling, and subway expansion impacts. She contributes to journals like Environmental Modeling and Software , Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems , and Semantic Web .

Xiaolong LiuView profile

Assistant Professor

• Real Estate Finance
• Property Valuation
• Land Economics
• +2 more

Dr. Xiaolong Liu is an Assistant Professor in Real Estate at the University of Groningen's Faculty of Spatial Sciences. Research focuses on real estate markets, property valuation methodologies, and spatial economic analysis. Current projects investigate housing market dynamics, land use economics, and behavioral aspects of property transactions. Geographic expertise includes both European and Chinese real estate markets. Recent publications analyze flipping behavior in housing markets and spatial diffusion of energy consumption patterns. Teaching responsibilities include courses on international real estate markets and investment strategies.

• Innovation Studies
• Sustainable Development
• Spatial Econometrics
• +3 more

Dr. Jianhua Zhang is a Researcher at the Innovation Studies Group , Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development , Utrecht University . His work focuses on the spatial dynamics of sustainability transitions and diffusion of green innovation in Europe. Education: PhD in Economic Geography (University of Groningen, 2024), MSc in Urban Economics (Erasmus University Rotterdam) Prior Positions: Postdoctoral Researcher at Leiden University; Researcher and Urban Planner in Amsterdam and Macau Research Expertise: Combines quantitative methods like (spatial) econometrics, network analysis, and input-output modeling with machine learning. Currently contributing to the SEAL project to analyze policy impacts on agri-food and land use innovation. Methodological Focus: Spatial microsimulation, policy evaluation, and interdisciplinary approaches to sustainability transitions.

Jianhua ZhangView profile

Researcher

• Environmental Behavior
• Spatial Microsimulation
• Econometric Models
• +4 more

Jianhua Zhang is a postdoctoral researcher affiliated with the Faculty of Spatial Sciences at the University of Groningen and Leiden University. His work bridges economic geography, environmental behavior modeling, and spatial econometrics. Research Focus: Environmental behavior analysis, sustainability transitions, and spatial diffusion modeling. Key Methods: Spatial microsimulation, econometric models, and network analysis. Recent publications highlight his contributions to understanding residential solar PV adoption patterns, peer effects on environmental imitation, and global technology diffusion for climate mitigation. His work aligns with UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) related to climate action and sustainable cities. Academic Activities: Presented at international conferences (CUPUM 2023, Applied Theory Finance 2022-2023), peer-review work for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies .

Gerton RongenView profile

Research Fellow

• Poverty Dynamics
• Income Inequality
• Development Economics
• +1 more

Gerton Rongen serves as a Visiting Fellow in the Department of Economics at the School of Business and Economics, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam , while pursuing his PhD at the same institution. He is concurrently a PhD Fellow at the Amsterdam Institute for Global Health and Development (AIGHD), with ancillary roles including Member of the Advisory Council for the College & Graduate School of Social Sciences at Universiteit van Amsterdam (2022–present) and an upcoming Short-term Consultant at the World Bank (May–June 2025). His research centers on poverty dynamics, income inequality, and development economics , with empirical focus on Southeast Asia and Africa. Key projects include analyzing economic mobility in Malaysia , adjusting survey-based inequality measures for missing top incomes (applied to Mumbai), and evaluating water/sanitation programs in Durban. He also investigates perceptions of inequality and their political implications, contributing to UN Sustainable Development Goals related to poverty reduction and health equity. Publication trends reveal a methodological emphasis on synthetic panel construction and vulnerability analysis for poverty measurement, with regional expertise concentrated in Malaysia and India. His work bridges micro-level economic analysis with policy-oriented development research, frequently collaborating with institutions like the World Bank. Rongen actively disseminates findings through academic presentations, including a 2021 lecture on Malaysian poverty dynamics co-delivered with P. Lanjouw. His research has garnered policy references, Wikipedia citations, and significant Mendeley readership (57+), indicating real-world impact in development economics circles.

• Health and Well-Being
• Social Networks
• Public Health
• +3 more

Kristina Thompson is an Assistant Professor at the Wageningen School of Social Sciences (WASS) within Wageningen University, specializing in Health and Society. Her research focuses on understanding how social networks influence health behaviors, aging populations, and public health interventions. Key areas of study include the social determinants of health, historical demography, and computational modeling of health systems. Her work combines epidemiological analysis with agent-based simulations, as seen in projects like the Health in All Networks Simulator (HANS) and COMMA model. She explores topics ranging from long-term care policies for disabled elderly to historical health patterns in Suriname and the Netherlands. Thompson has collaborated on interdisciplinary studies involving urban digital twins, food environment interventions, and the mental health impacts of pandemics. Notable contributions include systematic reviews on agent-based health interventions and groundbreaking studies on Dutch height trends. She actively participates in academic conferences, presenting research on historical disease databases and maternal-child survival in colonial contexts. Thompson co-supervises two active PhD projects: The Amsterdam Social Network Interventions for health Simulator and Samen Kansrijk en Gezond. Her research has been featured in media discussions about Dutch health and historical health patterns.

Loes BoumanView profile

Assistant Professor

• Social Innovation
• Agent-Based Modeling
• Collective Action
• +5 more

Dr. Loes Bouman is an Assistant Professor at the Governance and Innovation department of Campus Fryslân, University of Groningen. Her research focuses on social innovation, collective action, and experimental methods, with a particular emphasis on agent-based modeling and spatial microsimulation. She contributes to interdisciplinary studies addressing sustainability challenges and socio-technical systems. Her work integrates quantitative methods to analyze household energy behavior, norm diffusion processes, and social dynamics. Key contributions include frameworks like HUMAT for modeling individual motivations and network dynamics, and spatial econometric models for energy policy analysis. Bouman has collaborated internationally on projects such as PHOENIX, producing datasets for urban planning and sustainability. She actively participates in academic conferences like CUPUM and contributes to journals in social simulation and computational social science.

• Food Security
• Food Systems
• Nutrition
• +5 more

Marijke Kuiper is a Researcher in International Policy at Wageningen University, specializing in food systems, nutrition, and agricultural economics. With over 100 research outputs including 17 journal articles and 45 reports, she leads major EU-funded projects like BATModel and BATMAN, focusing on trade policy impacts, dietary transformations, and circular food economies. Her research centers on food security (100% fingerprint relevance), food systems (87%), and nutrition (55%), examining spillover effects of EU consumption, land use dynamics, and healthy diet transitions. She employs computable general equilibrium (CGE) models and spatial microsimulations to analyze socio-economic impacts across Bangladesh, Ghana, and Ethiopia, with particular emphasis on poverty reduction and environmental sustainability. Recent publications reveal converging trends in dietary transformation economics and circular bioeconomy policy, demonstrating how animal feed innovations reduce greenhouse gas emissions while trade policy adjustments could mitigate negative international spillovers. Her work bridges agricultural economics, environmental science, and public health through interdisciplinary modeling approaches. Kuiper actively mentors the next generation of researchers and secures competitive funding for high-impact projects: PhD Supervision: Co-promoted A. Gatto's doctoral research on circular bio-based societies' economic consequences Project Leadership: BATModel (2023-2024): Analyzed trade's distributional impacts through employment/income channels BATMAN (2020-2022): Developed trade policy frameworks for food system transformation India Food Safety Systems (2017): Evaluated economic costs of safety protocols She operates within international research consortia including INRAE (France) and Dutch knowledge networks, collaborating across 9 similar profiles in food security research. Her work integrates spatial microsimulation with economic modeling to address real-world policy challenges in global food systems.