Elco Koks

Elco Koks is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, within the Water and Climate Risk group at the Institute for Environmental Studies (IVM). His research focuses on disaster impact modeling, critical infrastructure resilience, network analysis, and macroeconomic consequences of natural hazards. He leads projects like Horizon Europe’s MIRACA, CoCliCo, and RECEIPT, addressing climate adaptation and infrastructure vulnerability.

Education:

• PhD in Environmental Studies (2016)
• MSc in Spatial, Transport and Environmental Economics (2011)
• BSc in Earth and Economics (2010)

Research Interests: Elco combines interdisciplinary approaches to assess economy-wide disaster impacts, integrating natural hazard models with macroeconomic frameworks. His work emphasizes cascading infrastructure failures and systemic risks, supported by tools like GitHub-hosted disaster impact models.

Articles Trends: Recent work explores AI-driven infrastructure detection, climate change impacts on power grids, and systemic risk from compound disasters. His studies highlight the need for adaptive strategies in coastal and urban systems.

Awards:

• VENI Grant (NWO, 2019)

Advising & Grants:

• Supervises 8 PhDs on infrastructure risk and economic impacts
• Principal Investigator for projects totaling over €10M, including EU Horizon grants

Labs & Teams: Engaged in interdisciplinary teams at IVM, focusing on global critical infrastructure resilience and climate adaptation strategies.