Dr Jessika Bohlmann (née Torres Noriega) was born in Caracas, Venezuela where she completed her high school career at the Santa Mariana de Jesús School in 2003. After completing her first two years of undergraduate study at Andres Bello Catholic University, Dr Bohlmann transferred to Monash University in Melbourne, Australia where she completed her BEcon degree. In 2011, she moved to South Africa with her husband where she continued with her postgraduate studies in Economics at the University of Pretoria. Dr Bohlmann is a South African permanent resident, and is fluent in both English and Spanish.
Dr Bohlmann holds an MCom and BCom (Hons) in Economics from the University of Pretoria in South Africa, and a BEcon from Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She has also completed certificate courses in Dynamic and Regional General Equilibrium (CGE) Modelling presented by the Centre of Policy Studies in Melbourne and an Advanced Certificate Course in Emerging Markets and Risk Analysis from Fordham University in New York. Dr Bohlmann recently finalised her PhD in the Department of Economics at the University of Pretoria. Her PhD thesis, conducted under the supervision of Prof Roula Inglesi-Lotz, evaluates the effects of energy and environmental policies on the South African economy, with particular focus on households. She is proficient in the use of a wide range of economic modelling software, including EViews, Stata and GEMPACK. Since 2016, Dr Bohlmann has been contracted as a research assistant to Prof Margaret Chitiga in the School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) at the University of Pretoria. Since 2018, she works as a consultant administrative assistant for the Partnership for Economic Policy (PEP) where she assists Prof Margaret Chitiga with research and administrative tasks for the Modelling and Policy Impact Analysis (MPIA) unit. Previously, she worked as a tutor in the Department of Economics and the Department of Business Management at the University of Pretoria between 2012 and 2015.
Dr Bohlmann has presented her academic research at several local and international conferences. Her Master’s thesis, An Economy-Wide Evaluation of New Power Generation in South Africa: The Case of Medupi and Kusile, was published in Energy Policy. One of the chapter of her thesis, Analysing the South African residential sector’s energy profile was published in Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews in 2018. She has also worked on several research projects with staff from the Department of Economics, School of Public Management and Administration (SPMA) and the University’s Teaching and Learning Committee. In addition to her work and study responsibilities, Dr Bohlmann has also served as a referee to academic journals in the area of energy economics on various occasions. She is a member of the Economic Society of South Africa (ESSA), the South African Association for Energy Economics (SAAEE) and the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE).
