Organisation

Group photo of the institute.
Part of IMAU employees in June 2022.

The study of climate change and possible implications for mankind is one field in which fundamental knowledge of the oceans and the atmosphere is applied.

The IMAU is formed by the staff of three chairs. Research is organised in five main themes.

The primary mission of the Institute for Marine and Atmospheric research Utrecht (IMAU) is to perform high quality fundamental climate research and teaching so as to contribute to solving grand societal challenges related to the global climate crisis, including the training of a new generation of climate scientists with a physics background.

The IMAU was established on 24 September 1991. It is based in the Faculty of Science, department of Physics, with a significant contribution from the section Coastal Research of the Departement of Physical Geography of the faculty of Geosciences of Utrecht University. The IMAU is formed by the staff of three chairs: Meteorology, Physical Oceanography and Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry. Research is organised in the main themes Ice and Climate, Atmospheric Dynamics, Oceans and Climate, Coastal and Shelf Sea Dynamics and Atmospheric Physics and Chemistry.

Directly connected to the research at IMAU is the Master Climate Physics. IMAU is also leading the PhD teaching and research activities in the Buys Ballot Research School for Study of Fundamental Processes in the Climate System (BBOS), a joint school with the Departement of Meteorology and Air Quality of Wageningen University.

Our researchers are active teachers in the teaching programmes of our university.

There are about 19 staff members available to run the undergraduate and graduate teaching programmes and to carry out research projects. Through the years, the IMAU has been successful in acquiring funds from outside the university, notably from NWO (Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research), SRON (Space Research Organization Netherlands), several ministries and the European Union. With these funds a large number of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, in recent years is employed.

Education is an essential part of our mission and our researchers are therefore active teachers in the bachelor and master programmes of our university. More and more national and foreign students come to participate in our teaching programmes. They discover that we offer a wide range of first-class courses.