The Collaborative Labeling and Appliance Standards Program (CLASP) is delighted to announce that Victoria Novikova is joining CLASP’s Europe office in the staff position of Technical Advisor, marking the addition of another valuable member to our growing international team.  Victoria will be based in Brussels where she will coordinate and manage project activities and be a key technical resource, contributing to strategic and program planning and the effective implementation of CLASP’s European Programs.

Victoria is a highly skilled researcher and analyst with considerable experience and competence relating to energy and climate policy issues. Since 2006 she has been a PhD candidate and researcher at the Central European University, in Budapest, Hungary, working on projects primarily addressing energy efficiency and improvements in energy end-use. Most recently Victoria spent a year as a Visiting Scholar at the University of Oxford’s Low Carbon Futures Group of the Environmental Change Institute where she conducted analysis on a UK-China comparative study of urban development patterns and its impacts on energy consumption.

As part of her prolific project activities Victoria has assessed the energy saving potentials of major types of appliances and building equipment at European Union level. While working on a project for the Hungarian Government, she has also had the opportunity to drill down to the Member State level. Results from this project have served as a basis for the elaboration of the implementation plan for Hungary’s Climate Change strategy and for reporting on progress towards Hungary’s fulfillment of its Kyoto commitments. Victoria’s project responsibilities have included the development of an economic engineering model for estimating electricity savings and green house gas abatement potentials, the assessment of potentials and costs associated with implementing energy efficiency measures, and based on energy efficiency investment analyses she provided recommendations for cost effective improvements to Hungary’s energy system. Victoria has also been involved in projects of the Environment and Security Initiative of UNEP, UNDP, OSCE and NATO, and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), Canada.  Prior to joining CEU, she taught engineering courses for several years as a lecturer and senior lecturer at Grodno State University’s Department of Physics and Engineering.

Victoria is currently preparing to defend her doctoral dissertation and will join the CLASP team in July. With a PhD in Environmental Sciences and Policy, a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a Master of Environmental Sciences and Policy under her belt she represents a considerable resource for the entire CLASP team. Victoria is a native Belarusian and Russian speaker, speaks English and Polish fluently and has a working knowledge of Ukrainian. She can be contacted at the CLASP Europe Office, 48 Rue de Stassart, Mailbox 6, 1050, Brussels, Belgium and  her email address, vnovikova@clasponline.org, will be operational as of July 1, 2010.