My experience and knowledge is based on more than 35 years involvement in fundamental and applied scientific studies in the coastal environment all over the world. It started in the Ems-Dollard estuary and Wadden Sea in the Netherlands where I, as a trained chemist and biologist, could work in a multidisciplinary group to study the estuarine carbon and nitrogen cycle. During this period the scope evolved from national to international studies: various EU project (e.g. NOWESP,EUROCAT, SPI-WATER, DIPOL) and the SCOPE-UNEP project “Transport of Carbon and major minerals from word rivers”.
My past work at a governmental agency of Rijkswaterstaat and nowadays within Deltares brings me in the opportunity to bridge the gap between fundamental science and the valorization of the results in national and international policy plans. International networks, as ICES, OSPAR and LOICZ, where the backbone of my work. As a member of (inter)national scientific advisory board of ICES, participation within OSPAR and various LOICZ projects and within the Water Frame Work and Marine Directives of the EU, I learned that capacity building on at least transboundary catchment level is necessary to integrate and to valorize scientific information to policymakers and to technological applications. Especially this last expertise will be mobilized within my future LOICZ work.
Beside scientific advisor with DELTARES I am part time professor in marine biogeochemistry at the University of Amsterdam and chairman of the environment- and geochemists and toxicologist in the Netherlands. Published more than 200 scientific papers and reports and six popular books on various aspects of the North Sea.