Isolde Gottwald, MSc MA BSc
Isolde is a PhD candidate in the Environmental Psychology group, funded by the DOC Fellowship of the Austrian Academy of Sciences. In her research, she is interested in the potential of entertainment media for climate change communication. She completed her MSc in Psychology (Dist.) with a specialisation in environmental psychology and science communication at the University of Vienna in March 2024 and a MA in Journalism and Communication Science in April 2026 with a particular interest in political communication, film studies and climate communication. She joined the Environmental Psychology Group in 2022 with a special interest in the potential of fictional storytelling and entertainment media for climate communication, which she explored in her master's thesis and is now expanding on as part of her PhD.In 2022, Isolde studied at the University of Melbourne, where she concentrated on interdisciplinary approaches to environmental studies and science communication. Alongside her academic career, she is dedicated to applying psychological insights to societal challenges. She has contributed to science communication efforts at Wissenschaft im Dialog in Berlin, the national organisation for science communication in Germany, and has been engaged as a Project Associate for three different Horizon Europe projects, TETTRIs, Skills4EOSC, and FAIRiCUBE, at the Natural History Museum Vienna from 2023-2025. In this position, she was involved in strategic science communication and stakeholder engagement activities with companies, organisations, and policymakers on open science, evidence-informed decision making, biodiversity, and sustainability topics. In addition, she contributed to a citizen science project with a specific focus on citizens' perceptions of and motivation for participation.
