Prof. Dr. Eva Lieberherr

Research Area

Eva Lieberherr leads the research group of Natural Resource Policy since September 2014. The group focuses on applied and problem-solving oriented research in the domain of natural resources (forest, landscape, soil and water). Such questions as the effects of policies and administrative processes on the protection and use of natural resources are assessed. A core research area is environmental governance, where the vertical and horizontal coordination between state and non-state actors as well as the integration of sectoral policies are analyzed.

Brief Curriculum Vitae

Eva Lieberherr was born in Princeton, NJ (USA) in 1980. She earned her bachelor’s degree in Interdisciplinary Studies (Environmental Science Policy and Management, Geography and Anthropology) at the University of California at Berkeley in 2004. She then spent a year as a WorldTeach volunteer in the Marshall Islands as well as a year teaching primary school in Switzerland, before returning to the USA to study at Oregon State University, where she completed a Master in Water Resources Policy and Management in 2008. In 2009, Eva began her doctorate at the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) and the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne (EPFL). Her PhD thesis (completed in 2012) is about how and why public, private and mixed governance modes affect the legitimacy, efficiency and effectiveness of water service provision in Switzerland, Germany and England. From 2012 to 2013 Eva worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Chair for Environmental Policy and Economics at the ETH Zurich and then as part of the Policy Analysis and Environmental Governance Cluster, Social Science Department, at Eawag. Eva has lectured at the University of Berne (2013 – 2014) as well as at ETH Zurich (2013 – present).