Dr Ulrike Kastrup is the Director of focusTerra, the Earth & Science Discovery Center at ETH Zurich. She is dedicated to communicating scientific knowledge with a focus on its social relevance, inspiring and empowering people to understand and act responsibly within their natural and human-made environments.

After completing her PhD on earthquakes at ETH Zurich, she explored various aspects of natural hazards, working at the United Nations University on flood management, the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology on wildfire warnings, and as Corporate Risk Manager at the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB). She has also been a mentor for women PhD students at ETH in the field of outreach and communication to foster equality. Ulrike served on the scientific committee of the European Environment Agency (EEA) and on the board of Ecsite, European network of science centres and museums. From 2021 to 2023 she was Vice-President of Ecsite. Ulrike is a member of the Education Committee of the European Geophysical Union EGU.