M.D.A. (Mariëlle) Rietkerk

M.D.A. (Mariëlle) Rietkerk

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PhD Candidate | Environmental psychologist 

Mariëlle Rietkerk is a PhD candidate working on the energy transition, bridging the gap between behavioural science and agent-based system modelling. She works at the Multi Actor Systems department and is a member of the TPM Energy Transition Lab. 

Research interests

The energy transition requires behavioural and social change on a multi-actor level. Understanding behavioural changes and its precursors in such complex systems is challenging: the actors underlying psychological processes (e.g. decision-making bias, group dynamics, preferences) vary widely and are difficult to identify.

At the same time, most existing agent-based energy transition models lack detail and profound scientific background when considering behavioural and social structures in the energy system.

In her PhD research, Mariëlle aims to translate psychological theory into re-usable building blocks for the implementation in agent-based models, and pursues the integration of behavioural and modelling research methods to improve data quality of such models.

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Academic background

Mariëlle holds a bachelor’s degree in Environmental Chemistry from University of Applied Sciences Leiden (2000) and a master’s degree in Economic and Consumer Psychology from Leiden University (2015). She worked as social scientist at TNO and Milieu Centraal before she joined TU Delft in 2023. 

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