Employee

Dr. William Hartz is a scientist in the Department of Environmental Chemistry and Health Effects at NILU. He previously completed his PhD at the University of Oxford and University Centre in Svalbard and currently holds an external position at Örebro University in Sweden.

Main research interests:

• Fate of contaminants in glaciers and Arctic environments, including a particular focus on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)
• Mechanisms for long-range atmospheric transport of contaminants with a particular focus on polar environments
• Observations from snow and ice cores to understand pollution, climate and glacier dynamics

In recent years, his research has focused on the sources and processes of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in the snow and ice on Svalbard. This work has led to the discovery of new Arctic contaminants, observation of high seasonality in PFAS deposition in the Arctic and new understandings about the atmospheric sources of PFAS to the Arctic using an ice core as a record of historical atmospheric deposition.

William is also part of NILU’s atmospheric monitoring team for organic contaminants, using data from several NILU stations such as the Zeppelin Observatory on Svalbard (79°N). Every year they publish a report into the levels of >250 organic contaminants in urban, rural and Arctic air in Norway and Svalbard.

William is available for contact to discuss industry solutions and monitoring for PFAS and other fluorinated contaminants.

Employee

Dr Luca Pozzoli, PhD serves as Senior scientist, Manager of the European Topic Centre on Human health and the Environment (ETC-HE), currently posted at Kjeller, Norway.

He has a MSc degree in Environmental Sciences from the Faculty of Science, Milano-Bicocca University, Milano, IT. His PhD in Environmental Engineering is from the Faculty of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering of the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Lausanne, CH.

His research interests include the relationship between atmospheric chemistry and climate interactions, human health and well-being and the environment, integrated assessment, human exposure assessment for air pollution, and the science for policy support.

Luca started at NILU as a senior scientist in June 2023, to be part of the management and coordination team of the ETC-HE, a consortium of 10 partners with expertise in air quality, air pollution, industrial emissions, chemicals, noise and environmental health. The ETC-HE is one of the eight centres of thematic expertise in environmental issues contracted by the European Environment Agency (EEA). The ETC-HE is a partner of the European Environment Information and Observation Network (Eionet) to gather and develop data, knowledge, and advice to policy makers about Europe's environment.

Before joining NILU, he worked for eight years at the European Commission – Joint Research Centre. He conducted scientific research and acted as project leader and manager of two projects about the Arctic, on the impacts of European and global air quality and climate policies on the environmental, climate and societal impacts of a changing Arctic. He also contributed to the further development and application of an Impact Assessment Model that provides information about the air quality impacts and costs on health, crops and ecosystems.

Employee

Dr. Vasileios Salamalikis serves as a researcher at Stiftelsen NILU in Kjeller, Norway. He holds a PhD in Atmospheric Physics from the University of Patras, Greece, where his research centered on analyzing global isotopic patterns in meteoric precipitation and their linkages to both historical and contemporary climate dynamics.

Currently, Vasileios focuses on air quality monitoring and modeling in indoor and outdoor environments, leveraging low-cost sensor technologies to identify and predict urban climatic conditions through the analysis of atmospheric and environmental datasets.

His academic interests encompass a wide range of topics, including isotope climatology, solar irradiance modeling, urban air pollution, development and application of quality control and AI/ML tools for atmospheric and environmental applications. Through his research, Vasileios is dedicated to understanding issues and refining methodologies for environmental monitoring and modeling, contributing to the sustainable development of urban and regional environments.

Employee

My research interest is quantifying greenhouse gas sources and sinks on regional and global scales. For this, I use a combination of ground- and satellite-based measurements and transport models (FLEXPART and LPDM) with Bayesian inversion techniques.
I am also looking into the effect of changes in sources and sinks on the large climate system.

Employee

Marc Peñalver Grau is an EU Project Manager at NILU, bringing a background in sustainable urban planning and citizen engagement. He holds a MSc in Nordic Urban Planning, a joint master's degree from Roskilde University (Denmark), Malmö University (Sweden), and Tromsø University (Norway). His studies equipped him with a broad set of social tools and a critical perspective on urban spaces. 

Marc has developed a holistic approach to urban planning, integrating social, economic, and technical perspectives. Additionally, he has expertise in project management, and his main interest lays in creating lasting impacts in developing urban areas. 

At NILU, Marc plays an important role in citizen engagement. He has developed a wide range of communication campaigns to encourage citizen participation in more than 10 cities both in Norway and Europe and over 15 workshops to understand community needs around air pollution and environment in general. 

Employee

Employee

Employee

Mahsa Motevallian is a Scientific Project Coordinator at NILU with over seven years of experience in managing international and national research and innovation projects. At NILU, Mahsa focuses on sustainability and digitalization, circular economy, climate change adaptation and mitigation, environment and health, and stakeholder engagement. She is experienced in project management, communication, and dissemination, contributing to the success of NILU’s research initiatives.

She holds a Master’s degree in International Environmental Studies and a Bachelor’s degree in Biology, providing her with a strong foundation to address environmental and sustainability challenges.

Mahsa manages the EU-funded projects CE-RISE and healthRiskADAPT and serves as a work package leader and co-leader in projects CE-RISE, healthRiskADAPT, MISO, and REWARD. She also contributes to NILU’s Grants Office, where she assists project leaders with proposal development and provides advice on securing large grants.

Employee

Dr. Mohamed-Bachir Belaid serves as a researcher at NILU based at Kjeller, Norway.

He earned his master’s degree in computer science and optimization in 2016 at USTO university in Oran, Algeria.

He then continued his studies at the University of Montpellier, south of France, where he earned his PhD in Constraint reasoning and Data mining. His PhD work was implemented as part of a library in the Choco constraint solver.

Before joining NILU, he worked as postdoc at Simula and at OsloMet. At Simula, he worked on constraint acquisition and qualitative constraints reasoning. At OsloMet, he worked on learning automata and Tsetlin Machine.

His expertise involves computer science, optimization, data mining, constraint reasoning, concept learning, qualitative constraints, and learning automata.

He also currently works on implementing AI and ML models on earth observation and various environmental applications.

Employee

Employee

Employee

Employee

Employee

Employee

Employee

Employee

Employee

Employee

Employee

Employee

Employee

Employee

Dr. Riccardo Boero is a Senior Scientist at NILU within the Department for Environmental Impacts and Sustainability. His extensive academic and research career has included positions at various European institutions and a decade-long tenure at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) in New Mexico, USA, before transitioning to NILU in 2022.

Riccardo holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Pavia, Italy, and a PhD in Sociology from the University of Surrey, UK. His research spans Climate Impacts Adaptation and Vulnerability, Computational Social Science, and Experimental and Behavioral Economics.

Focusing on the critical social and economic dynamics that drive sustainable progress, Riccardo is committed to open science and dedicated to innovating methodological approaches that achieve significant real-world impacts.

Employee