Expert Categories: Author
Henrik Wachtmeister
Henrik Wachtmeister is a researcher at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs and the Department of Earth Sciences at Uppsala University.
His research is focused on energy systems analysis, energy economics, and energy policy. He also teaches energy security and other energy systems courses.
(Last updated March 2026)
Petras Katinas
Petras Katinas is an Energy Analyst at the Center for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
(Last updated March 2024)
Johan Gars
Johan Gars is a researcher at the Beijer Institute of Ecological Economics and holds a PhD in Economics from Stockholm University (2012). His work sits broadly within the economics of environmental issues and natural resource use, with a focus on how the global economy depends on and affects the natural environment.
He uses a wide toolkit of economic models, including macroeconomic and trade frameworks, to analyze these relationships. His current research emphasizes the role of energy in the global economy and methods for jointly assessing several major environmental challenges at once, such as those captured by the planetary boundaries framework. He has also contributed research on macroeconomic aspects of climate change and on international trade in agricultural products and harvested renewable resources.
(Last updated November 2025)
Benjamin Hilgenstock
Benjamin Hilgenstock is a Senior Economist at the Kyiv School of Economics’ think tank, KSE Institute, focusing on international sanctions on Russia, in particular in the areas of energy, trade, finance, and export controls. Benjamin is also an Associate Fellow at the German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) and a member of the International Working Group on Russian Sanctions. He has written extensively on the topic of sanctions, including enforcement challenges of the G7 oil price cap regime as well as Russia’s continued access to Western technology.
Previously, Benjamin worked for the Institute of International Finance in Washington, DC (2018-2022) on the macroeconomic analysis of emerging markets, specifically those in Central and Eastern Europe and including Russia and Ukraine. Benjamin also spent several years with the International Monetary Fund’s (2016-2018) research department working on the publication of the World Economic Outlook.
He holds a Master of Arts in political science, macroeconomics, and German constitutional law from Johannes Gutenberg University, Mainz (2008) and studied abroad at American University in Washington, DC and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
(Last updated March 2024)
Daniel Spiro
Daniel Spiro is an Associate Professor at the Department of Economics at Uppsala University. His research mainly focuses on energy, conflict and climate policy.
(Last updated March 2026)
Inese Stars
Inese Stars has studied social sciences and obtained her PhD in pedagogy at the University of Latvia. Her research interests are related to social determinants of health, health literacy, and qualitative research methods in health research. She is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Public Health and Epidemiology at Rīga Stradiņš University.
Inese Gobiņa
Inese Gobiņa (PhD, Associate Professor) has a public health and epidemiology background. Her research interests lie in health determinants and health-related outcomes at a population level.
Janis Berzins
Jānis Bērziņš is an Associate Professor at the BI Norwegian Business School. He holds a PhD in Finance from Indiana University. Jānis’ main research interests are in the field of corporate governance, corporate finance and asset management. He has published in journals such as Journal of Financial Economics, Review of Finance and Journal of Corporate Finance.
Zane Varpina
Zane Varpina is an Associate Professor in the Department of Economics at the Stockholm School of Economics in Riga. She is also a lead researcher at the Baltic International Centre for Economic Policy Studies (BICEPS). Her research interests include higher education, demography, AI and skills.
(Last updated September 2026)
Kata Fredheim
Kata Fredheim is Executive Vice President of Partnership and Strategy, Associate Professor in Economics and Business at SSE Riga and Research Fellow at BICEPS.
As a social anthropologist, Kata’s research focuses on migration, internationalization, and higher education. Her most recent work is on Ukraine. She directs courses in Economic Anthropology, Market Research, and Global Challenges, and serving as the director of the Women in Leadership executive course.
(Last updated June 2023)