Recognition for societal and scientific impact by Utrecht’s climate scientists

Sustainability research is high on our agenda, and the Reuters press agency ranking of the world’s most influential climate scientists shows that our efforts fortunately haven’t gone unnoticed. The highest-ranking Dutch scientist in this top 1,000 is Detlef van Vuuren from the Faculty of Geosciences’ Copernicus Institute, with an impressive 4th place.

Van Vuuren focuses on global sustainability issues, and develops models that explore future climate and environmental changes using a variety of scenarios. That also involves examining the interaction between climate, environment, our surroundings and the economy. He has contributed to the climate scenarios used by the United Nations’ International Panel on Climate Change. In addition to his work at Utrecht University, Van Vuuren is also a senior researcher affiliated with the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (PBL).

The Reuters list includes a total of 39 researchers affiliated with Dutch institutes, including 12 working at Utrecht University. In addition to Detlef van Vuuren, they are: Appy Sluijs, Stefan Schouten, Jaap Sinninghe Damste, Henk Brinkhuis, Walter Immerzeel, Marc Bierkens, Andries Hof, Gert-Jan Reichart, (all from the Faculty of Geosciences), Roderik van de Wal (faculties of Science and Geosciences), Henk Dijkstra and Hans Oerlemans (Faculty of Science).

Utrecht’s climate research activities fall under Pathways to Sustainability, one of Utrecht University’s four strategic research themes.