Catharina Nickel is a Research Officer at the United Nations University for Center for Policy Research (UNU-CPR), where she is leading a project on the future of UN peace operations.
Catharina joined UNU-CPR in 2023 and contributed to the work of the High-Level Advisory Board on Effective Multilateralism (HLAB). Before that, she served as a Protection of Civilians Officer in the UN Peacekeeping Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) and worked as a Programme Manager at the UN Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations (UN DPPA-DPO) in New York, as well as in the UN Peacekeeping Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS).
Catharina started her UN career at UNU’s Institute for Environment and Human Security (UNU-EHS) in Bonn, Germany, where she developed educational and research programs on climate change adaptation, vulnerability, and preparedness. She has conducted field research in East Africa, working on oil extraction, and completed a research stay at the Max-Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle an der Saale, Germany.
In addition to global assignments around resource extraction, peace, and security, Catharina has worked in Forensic Psychiatry and with juvenile offenders. She has several years of experience treating patients suffering from paranoid schizophrenia.