Background

Sluijs studied biology and biogeology in Utrecht and at the University of California at Santa Cruz, USA. In 2006 he obtained his Ph.D. cum laude Utrecht University. Subsequently he received a Veni grant from the Netherlands Organization of Scientific Research (NWO) and was appointed to a tenure Assistant Professor position in September 2009. The European Research Council awarded him a Starting Grant in 2010 and a Consolidator Grant in 2017. He was appointed as full professor of Paleoceanography in May 2014. His group carries out research on the full range of marine sciences, in close collaboration with researchers in Utrecht, the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) and a large international suite of institutes.

• Current Position

Professor of Paleoceanography, Utrecht University (April 2014 – present). Full professor at the Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geosciences. Co-leader of the research group Marine Palynology and Paleoceanography.

• Past Positions

Member The Young Academy (De Jonge Akademie, 2009 - 2014): http://www.dejongeakademie.nl/nl/leden/alumni/8184

Assistant Professor, Utrecht University (January 2012 – April 2014). Tenure position at the Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geosciences. Co-leader of the research group Marine Palynology.

Assistant Professor, Utrecht University (September 2009 – December 2011). Tenure position at the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science.

Post-doctoral fellowship, Utrecht University. July 2007 – August 2009. Funded through Veni grant (July 2007 – 2010 granted by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research NWO; € 208.000).

Post-doctoral researcher, Utrecht University. September 2006 – July 2007.

• Awards

Heineken Young Scientists Award for Environmental Sciences, 2010. Prestigious award granted to Netherlands-based researchers in environmental sciences until maximally 5 years after PhD graduation (€ 10.000). The prize was awarded for the first time in 2010 and is coordinated through the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

Vening-Meinesz Award, 2010. Prestigious Dutch award for young geoscientists (€ 10.000). The prize was awarded for the 12th time since 1965 and is coordinated through the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research.

Membership of ‘The Young Academy” of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2009 – present).

Outstanding Young Scientist Award of the European Geosciences Union for 2007.

Annual Netherlands Academic Prize, 2007 (Academische Jaarprijs 2007; € 100.000). Dutch National Science Outreach Award for our project entitled “Expedition Greenhouse World” (www.expeditiebroeikaswereld.nl). Cooperative effort between geologists, education geographers and biologists of Utrecht University.

• Education

PhD cum laude (top 1-2 % at Utrecht University) 2003 – 2006 at the Section Palaeoecology, Institute of Environmental Biology, Laboratory of Palaeobotany and Palynology, Utrecht University. Title: Global Change during the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum. Promotor: Prof. Dr. A.F. Lotter. Co-promotor: Dr. H. Brinkhuis.

MSc. in Biology (2003) at the Faculty of Biology, Utrecht University. Title: Timing and nature of the opening of the Tasmanian Gateway; the Eocene/Oligocene transition of ODP Leg 189 sites (related references can be found below). Advisors: Dr. H. Brinkhuis (Utrecht University), Dr. S.A. Schellenberg and James C. Zachos (University of California at Santa Cruz).

• External funding

PI: Incoming visiting scientist grant funded by NWO (€ 12.000) for Prof. Dr. Richard E. Zeebe, University of Hawaii.

PI: The Visiting Professors Programme of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW; € 25.000) for a long-term stay of Prof. Dr. Gerald R. Dickens, Rice University at Utrecht University.

PI: Academy Colloquium (€ 20.000) of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) to be organized around the proposed theme “Constraining estimates of future climate variability from geological records.” Together with Eelco Rohling (University of Southampton) and Henk Dijkstra (Utrecht University).

PI: ERC Starting Grant (€ 1.500.000) from the European Research Council, 2010. Project title: “From Protist to Proxy: Dinoflagellates as signal carriers for climate and carbon cycling during past and present extreme climate transitions”, or “DINOPRO”.

PI: Veni grant (€ 208.000) from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO), April 2007, for a research proposal entitled: “Biotic, climatic and geochemical change during Early Eocene transient global warming events.”

Co-PI: “Reconstructing the evolution and dynamics of the Antarctic cryosphere from Ocean Drilling; a dinoflagellate perspective.” New Netherlands Polar Programme, NWO, 2010. PI: Prof. Dr. H. Brinkhuis, Utrecht University.

Co-PI: “Double Trouble: Consequences of Ocean Acidification – Past, Present and Future”. Darwin Center for Biogeology, 2009. PI: Dr. G.-J. Reichart, Utrecht University. 3 PhD Students and one Post-doc.

Co-PI: Astronomical control on classic fluvial successions in the Bighorn basin (Wyoming, USA): implications for duration of transient global warming events and rates of mammal turnover during the early Paleogene. NWO-ALW, 2008. PI: Frederik Hilgen, Earth Sciences, Utrecht University. 3 year Post-doc.

Co-PI: Origin and cause of Paleogene hyperthermal events. Darwin Center for Biogeology, 2006. PI: Prof D. Kroon, Earth and Life Sciences, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam. 3 PhD Students.

Co-PI: GLOW Tropical temperature history during Palaeogene global warming events, 2008. NWO-EUROCORES. PI: Prof. D. Kroon, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.

Co-PI: incoming sabbatical grants of NWO for J. Pross, J.C. Zachos and H.J Spero.

• Membership of boards and committees

Member of the The Council for Earth and Life Sciences of the Royal Academy or Arts and Sciences (Raad voor Aard- en Levenswetenschappen), 2013 - present.

Member of the board of The Young Academy of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (De Jonge Akademie van de KNAW), 2012-2014. Responsible for the track ‘Science and Society’.

The Young Academy on Wheels Project Group. Outreach project of The Young Academy aimed to show young high school students (~12 years old; all levels) what science is (http://www.dejongeakademieonwheels.nl).

Knowledge Infrastructure Earth Sciences, The Netherlands. Advisory Board for Earth and Life Sciences of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, 2009 [Kennisinfrastructuur Aardwetenschappen Nederland. Raad voor Aard- en Levenswetenschappen (RAL) van de Koninklijke Nederlandse Akademie van Wetenschappen (KNAW).] Evaluation committee on the position of Dutch Earth Science research within the Netherlands and in the world.

Netherlands Innovation Platform committee on the Netherlands Knowledge System and Knowledge Economy, 2009-2010. Chairs: Robbert Dijkgraaf (President Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences) and René Smit (President Executive Board Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam).

Member of the scientific committee of the Netherlands Advisory Council for Research on Spatial Planning, Nature and Environment (RMNO), September 2007 – December 2009

Chairman of the Palaeobotanical and Palynological Society Utrecht, 2004 – 2007

Member of the board of the Palaeobotanical and Palynological Society Utrecht, 2003 – 2004

• Editorial and reviewing activities

Editor of the open access journal Climate of the Past, published by the European Geosciences Union (2010 – present). ISI 2011 Impact Factor: 3.509

Associate Editor of Earth and Planetary Science Letters (2011 – 2012). ISI 2011 Impact Factor: 4.180

Advisory panel member for Nature, Scientific Reports (2011 – 2012)

Member of the editorial board of one of the leading geoscience journals Geology, published by the Geological Society of America (2008 – 2010). ISI 2011 Impact Factor: 3.612

Reviewer of research proposals for the National Science Foundation (NSF, USA) the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC, UK) and the European Research Council (ERC).

Reviewer for the journals Nature, Science, Nature Geoscience, Nature Communications, Nature Scientific Reports, Geology, Paleoceanography, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Climate of the Past, Geophysical Research Letters, Terra Nova, Newsletters on Stratigraphy, Marine Chemistry, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, Geochemistry-Geophysics-Geosystems and Organic Geochemistry.

• Sessions or conferences organized

Lead convener of the International Conference on Paleoceanography 12, 2016, Utrecht, The Netherlands

Co-convener on the symposium ‘Publish Open-Access or Perish?’ at the Royal Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW); February 6, 2013.

Co-convener and organizer of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) Academy Colloquium “PALEOSENS: Constraining estimates of future climate variability from geological records”, March 2011, with Eelco Rohling (University of Southampton) and Henk Dijkstra (Utrecht University). This symposium resulted in a large article in Nature in 2012.

Organizing committee of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences theme symposium on ‘Surrogate Markers’, on January 2011.

Co-convener of the session: Ocean Acidification: Past, Present and Future. Goldschmidt conference on Geochemistry, August 2011, with D. Schmidt.

Organizing committee Netherlands Earth-Sciences meeting (Veldhoven, 2010)

Co-convener of the session: Marine Biotic Response to Global Warming, past and present. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, December 2007, with H. Brinkhuis and T.J. Bralower.

Co-convener of the session: Cenozoic Greenhouse Climates and Carbon Cycle Dynamics. American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting, December 2009, with J.C. Zachos and R.E. Zeebe.

PhD students (co-) advised:

Carolien van der Weijst (PhD candidate) 2015 - present

Robin van der Ploeg (PhD candidate) 2014 - present

Margot Cramwinckel (PhD candidate) 2014 - present

Tjerk Veenstra (PhD candidate), 2012 - present

Mariska Datema (PhD candidate), 2011 - present

Joost Frieling (PhD candidate), 2011 - present

Mirja Hoins (PhD candidate), 2011 – present

Niels van Helmond (PhD), 2011 – 2015

Johan Vellekoop (PhD), 2011 - 2015

Sander Houben (PhD), 2008 - 2012

Peter Bijl (PhD), 2007 – 2011

• Extracurricular Teaching Activities

Co-director of the Urbino Summer School in Paleoclimatology (USSP) 2014, 2015. Urbino, Italy

Contribution to the Jurassic – Cretaceous – Tertiary Dinoflagellate Cyst Course on Morphology, Stratigraphy & (Paleo)ecology. Heidelberg, Germany, 2015; Utrecht, The Netherlands, 2012; Urbino, Italy, 2009; Urbino, Italy, 2006; Tübingen, Germany, 2004

Contribution to the Urbino Summer School in Paleoclimatology (USSP) 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013. Urbino, Italy.

• Memberships

American Geophysical Union (2003 – present)

European Geosciences Union (2006 – present)

Geological Society of America (2007 – present)

European Association of Geochemistry (2011 – present)

• Offshore Drilling

Member of the Shipboard Scientific Party for Integrated Ocean Drilling Program Expedition 320-321 (Pacific Equatorial Age Transect, May-June 2009).

During my undergraduate studies I was selected to participate in Leg 208 of the international research drilling organization Ocean Drilling Program. This drilling project on the Walvis Ridge, during March-May 2003, focused on latest Mesozoic and Cenozoic climate evolution, with special reference to the Paleocene – Eocene boundary interval. Co-chiefs of Leg 208 were Prof. Dr. D. Kroon and Prof. Dr. James C. Zachos.