Maria Anna Hecher is a researcher at EPFL Lausanne at the Laboratory on Human-Environment Relations in Urban Systems since 2020. She explores sustainability transitions through a socio-technical lens focusing on the behavioral dynamics of energy systems. As an environmental system scientist she performs research on the social acceptance of energy technologies and the diffusion of innovations in residential building sector while combining social and environmental science methods with energy modeling.
After her PhD, she had the chance to put her knowledge into practice and managed a three-year program on regional sustainability projects in an energy region in Styria, Austria. In cooperation with local decision-makers, public authorities, schools, companies and the local population, she realized projects in the field of renewable energy and sustainable mobility. She worked as a consultant in an energy agency for and in the city of Graz, Austria. She managed projects in the field of e-mobility and spatial energy planning collaborating with public authorities, energy suppliers, city planners and research institutions.
Her work in recent years, has been performed mostly in an inter- and transdisciplinary setting integrating knowledge from different scientific disciplines and fields of practice at the interface between research, politics and society.