Emma Velterop

Emma Velterop is a third year PhD candidate in Earth System Science. Her research focuses on the intersection of housing quality and climate vulnerability, and understanding people’s related risk perceptions and behaviors.

Prior to attending Stanford, Emma obtained a masters in Civil Engineering from UCL (University College London), and worked at the European Space Agency and ETH Zürich on remote sensing research. She initially came to Stanford to continue working on remote sensing, but as she became more involved in the Stanford Future Bay Initiative, Emma realized she was very interested in community engagement, and wanted to produce actionable results in collaboration with local partners. Emma has also incorporated qualitative methods in her research to answer these questions surrounding climate vulnerability

“When you’re sitting behind a computer just doing your own thing, which is incredibly important work, but it’s also very easy to lose sight of what it actually means and what impact it can have. This is why interviews are so interesting! They can tell you things that you don’t even think about when you’re just doing something by yourself. It’s crucial to talk to people, because they’re the ones who are experiencing it, and they’re the ones who know what’s going on.”

When she is not researching, Emma finds comfort in forested scenery, hiking, and her explorations with ice and in-line figure skating.