PD Dr.

About

Mahshid Sotoudeh is a TA researcher with a background in chemical and process engineering. She is associate professor in the field of "technology assessment and sustainability".

Education

Born in 1963 in Tehran, she studied polymer and chemical engineering in Tehran and Vienna, graduating with honours in 1991 with a study on the modelling of mass transfer in a bioreactor for waste air treatment.  Her PhD thesis on the computer aided modelling and analysis of material flow in the environment was completed in 1994.  In 2010 she concluded her "habilitation" procedure at the Technical University of Graz and received the venia legendi in "technology assessment and sustainability."

Experience

From 1991 to 1994, Mahshid was research and teaching assistant at the Vienna University of Technology, working on sustainable development and interdisciplinary modelling in environmental engineering. She moved to the Chemistry and Environment Research Institute in 1994 and continued her work on the modelling of material flows in natural and industrial systems. In 1998 she started work at the ITA in the field of technology and sustainability.

She has become increasingly interested in interdisciplinary research for the analysis of complex issues at the interface between technology, environment and society. Her first research topics included clean technologies, innovation in the chemical industry and the adoption of environmental technologies, integrated environmental technologies in the cement industry and refineries, renewable resources and bioplastics. After a number of projects on the TA of innovative environmental technologies, in recent years she has become involved in a broader approach towards sustainability at national and international level. These issues include technical education for sustainable development, aging society, sustainable urban regions, Parliamentary TA, participatory methods and foresight.

Among others she is a member of the editorial board of the Journal for Technology Assessment in Theory and Practice (TATuP).

Projects

Selected Publications

Among her numerous publications, the book Technical education for sustainability, An analysis of needs in the 21st century and her contributions to TA in teaching are particularly noteworthy.

Contact

Tel.: (+43-1-) 51581-6590
Fax: (+43-1-) 51581-6570
Bäckerstraße 13, 1010 Vienna
msotoud(at)oeaw.ac.at

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