Dr. Ulrike Bechtold (b.1975) is an anthropologist with a special focus on human ecology.

She studied biology/anthropology at the University of Vienna. In 2000/2001 she attended the master's programme for Human Ecology at the Freije Universiteit of Brussels (Belgium). In 2001 she completed her first fieldwork in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala. In 2002 (February-June) she spent a second field season there, conducting research and collecting data for her master's thesis: 'Xelaque - Social Impact Analysis of the DA-Project XelAguA in Quetzaltenango, Guatemala'. The thesis focused on the evaluation of an Austrian DA-Project dealing with sustainable freshwater use in the second largest city of Guatemala. She finished her master's thesis in the Spring of 2003 and started working as a PhD research assistant for the Human Ecology working group with special attention on transition studies, societal transition and local sustainability. Within this focus she worked together with H. Wilfing in the project: 'Man: Nature - Leymebamba', which dealt with the local sustainability options of a remote village in Amazonia, Peru. In the scope of this project she completed her PhD thesis in 2006.

During her scientific career, she completed special trainings in qualitative and semi-quantitative research methods as well as gathering experiences in statistical data analysis. In 2006 she completed a training course of 392 hours in mediation.

In March 2007 she joined the Institute of Technology Assessment of the Austrian Academy of Sciences where she is working in the area of Environmental Technology. Her Recent focus of work: Development of sustainability options, requirements for sustainability processes, conflicts and participative approaches to investigate the triangle “technology – human being – natural resources”. She recently completed projects in the area of energy and ambient assisted living. Current projects deal with participatory approaches in the context of climate change and ageing.