Catherine Pérez Vega (Panama, Panama City, 1990) is an Architectural Lighting Designer and Independent Light Pollution Researcher working at the intersection of ecology and lighting design. She brings a fresh perspective to lighting strategies, considering both how people experience spaces at night and how lighting design play a key role in helping preserve night ecology and the night

Her practice, based in Berlin with international projects, is built around two frameworks including Light Responsibly for People and Light Responsibly for Places.

Light Responsibly for People is a toolkit for professionals that offers training, workshops and lectures to help shift current design approaches towards evidence-based processes. It is ideal for teams looking to challenge their assumptions and think outside the box.

Light Responsibly for Places supports projects through consulting and assessments, including night-time measurements, environmental impact assessments, lighting plan evaluations and site-specific lighting strategies. Each project is grounded in evidence that clearly justifies when and where light is needed.

Catherine collaborates with universities to bring night ecology, ecological thinking and scientific perspectives into the education of future designers, architects and lighting plannerss. She also consults for professionals, private clients, manufacturers and communities on environmentally responsible lighting.

She holds a doctorate in Natural Sciences (Dr. rer. nat.) from Freie Universität Berlin and a Master’s in Architectural Lighting Design from Hochschule Wismar. Her doctoral research, hosted at the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), focused on the environmental impact of artificial light at night and light pollution in urban settings and aquatic habitats. This background allows her to bring together environmental science and lighting design practice.

From 2011 to 2014, Catherine worked across design agencies, designing light for luminaires and planning it for urban masterplans. While her days were spent considering how architecture and product design serve people in cities at night, her evenings were spent reading the literature on lighting systems and their potential impact beyond the spaces used by humans.

In 2015, she was introduced to the field of night ecology. Since then, she has combined her creative and research expertise on projects that call for unique approaches and strategies.

Today, she describes her practice as a constellation of skills that brings science and design closer together. She works with organizations through B2B protocols, helping them apply environmentally responsible lighting in their projects and processes. She is also a writer, lecturer and educator, contributing to creative, technical and scientific projects that integrate design systems creatively and plan light responsibly.