dr. ML (Marthe) Derkzen

Marthe Derkzen is a researcher and lecturer with the Health and Society chair group. She studies urban nature from a social justice perspective with an interest in climate adaptation, local food, healthy neighborhoods and stewardship of the commons. Her work in the PARTIGAN project revolves around the question: How can participatory greening reduce socioeconomic health disparities?

Earlier, Marthe coordinated a multi-stakeholder partnership for equitable and sustainable land governance at Utrecht University, funded by the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and worked as a policy officer at the research funding agency NWO. For her PhD in Environmental Geography (VU University Amsterdam) she published on quantification and valuation methods for urban ecosystem services, working with the municipality of Rotterdam on green infrastructure for climate adaptation and with Azim Premji University in Bangalore on slum dwellers’ reliance on rapidly degrading urban lakes.

Marthe also teaches fun science classes at primary schools for Planeet in Actie!