Dr. Elisabeta Militaru is a postdoctoral researcher in psychology whose work pioneers the emerging field of the psychology of places. Her research explores how physical environments shape our emotional experiences, behaviours, and sense of self.

Elisabeta’s expertise spans emotion science, environmental psychology, and digital methods. She combines large-scale data, deep learning, and field studies to understand how people feel in different environments, how they express emotion relative to their surrouding environment and how spaces can be designed to enhance well-being.

She earned her PhD in Psychology from the University of Cambridge, where she was awarded a fully funded doctoral fellowship by the Economic and Social Research Council. Her thesis—The Personality and Emotion Profile of Landscapes: Towards a Psychology of Places—mapped personality and emotion responses to places. During her PhD she was awarded research grants from the Cambridge Philosophical Society and Nokia Bell Labs. She was also awarded a Research Innovation Fellowship to apply psychological science insights to public policies developed within the UK’s Cabinet Office.

Elisabeta is the lead author of several papers on place and emotion, including “Searching for Ithaca: The Geography and Psychological Benefits of Nostalgic Places”. Currently based at the University of Amsterdam, she has recently been a visiting researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, where she collaborates on global projects in affective science.

Beyond academia, Elisabeta collaborates with urban designers and NGOs to bring psychological insights into real-world spatial planning and policy. She has advised on projects in Europe and the US, including a placement in the UK Cabinet Office focused on the psychology of democratic participation.