Diana Ürge-Vorsatz was born in 1968 in Budapest, Hungary. She attended Radnóti High School. From 1986-1992 Ürge-Vorsatz attended Eötvös Lóránd University of Sciences in Budapest. She earned a master's degree in physics with specialization in both Astrophysics and Environmental Physics. During this period, Ürge-Vorsatz studied as a visiting student at Brunel, the University of West London from 1990-1991, where she took graduate courses in environmental pollution science and conducted research in environmental physics. In the summer of 1992, following her Master's graduation, Ürge-Vorsatz attended a post-grad program in Environmental Science at Central European University. Ürge-Vorsatz earned her PhD in Environmental Science and Engineering from the University of California, Los Angeles and Berkeley in 1996. Her dissertation is entitled “Evaluating US Residential and Commercial Electricity Conservation Potentials: an Analysis of the Lighting Sector.” During this period, she was a Fulbright Scholar within the Energy and Resources Group. Ürge-Vorsatz also served as a teaching assistant in the UCLA Department of Physics.
Career
Ürge-Vorsatz began working at Central European University in 2001, where she is a full Professor. Ürge-Vorsatz took the position of Director for the Center for Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Policy in 2007. That year Ürge-Vorsatz was a coordinating lead author in the Nobel Peace Prize-Winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The Nobel Peace Prize was awarded jointly to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and Albert Arnold Gore Jr. for their effort to bring climate change information to the public.
Public engagement
Ürge-Vorsatz engages with the public through regular writing on environmental issues for Hungarian and European newsletters and newspapers. She participated in workshops such as the Fulbright Workshop on the Environment in San Francisco in 1994. She is the founder and moderator of HIX KÖRNYÉSZ, an electronic environmental science periodical.
Leader, Scientific review of Sustainable Development Goal “7” in the new UN Development goals development process. 2014
Member of the Scientific Committee of the high-level conference, “Our Common Future under Climate Change”, Paris, 2015.
Invited to contribute to a high-level report to for UN Secretary General in Sept 2014.
Coordinating Lead Author, Chapter on Building Sector GHG Mitigation, Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Working Group III. 2011 – 2014
Convening Lead Author, Energy End-use: Buildings, Global Energy Assessment. 2007 – 2012
Recipient of the Award “Példakép” founded by Pannon. 2009
Recipient of the Hungarian Presidential recognition “A Magyar Köztársasági Érdemrend Középkeresztje”, 2008.
Member of the United Nation's Scientific Expert Group on Climate Change, 2004 – 2007.
