Dr. Nora Szarka

Biography

Dr. Nora Szarka is an environmental engineer with over 20 years of experience in decision support, strategic biomass use and regional development. She earned her engineering degree from the University of Miskolc (Hungary) and completed her Ph.D. at the University of Leoben (Austria).

From 2001 to 2007, she worked as a researcher at the University of Leoben, focusing on renewable energy systems and regional development concepts. Between 2007 and 2010, she served as a project engineer at the University of Concepción (Chile), contributing to environmental and energy research in an international context.

From 2011 to 2025, she led the working group “Biomass in the Energy System” at the German Biomass Research Center (DBFZ). During this period, she developed and applied a portfolio of strategic planning and decision-support tools to support the transition toward a sustainable bioeconomy and the integration of negative emission technologies. Her work combines systems analysis, scenario development, biomass resource assessment, and multi-criteria decision analysis to address complex sustainability trade-offs.

In May 2025, she joined the Department of Civil Engineering at the University of Calgary, Canada. At the University of Calgary, she established a Bioeconomy Working Group focusing on advancing the sustainable bioeconomy in Canada. She has ongoing projects in Canada in the above topics, e.g. assessment of Canada's biomass potential, development of biomass conversion databases, systems analysis of bio-based carbon dioxide removal (CDR) pathways, comparative bioeconomy and governance analyses between Canada and Europe. 

 Examples of ongoing projects with participation of Dr. Szarka:
- Mapping of sustainable biomass resources and conversion in Canada (project lead)
- Systems analysis of bio-based CDRs in Canada (project lead)
- Establishing a transdisciplinary research and training program in system dynamics

She also teaches Systems Analysis for Sustainable Bioeconomy.