Marc Bierkens (1965) holds the chair in Earth Surface Hydrology at the Department of Physical Geography at Utrecht University. He was chairman of the department between 2009 and 2015, vice dean of research of the faculty of Geosciences between 2021-2025 and dean ad interim from March to August 2025. He received his MSc in Hydrology from Wageningen University (1990). and a PhD in Physical Geography from Utrecht University (1994). Between 1994 and 2002 he worked as a senior scientist and team leader at Alterra Research Institute in Wageningen. He became professor of Hydrology at Utrecht University in 2002. From 2002-2009 he was also part-time employed (0.4 fte) by the Groundwater Division of TNO (now Netherlands Geological Survey TNO) and from 2009-2025 part-time employed by Deltares (0.2 fte). 

Marc Bierkens’ fields of expertise are groundwater hydrology, ecohydrology, stochastic hydrology, hydrological regionalisation, upscaling theory and geostatistics and global hydrology. His current research focuses on understanding the global water cycle and how this is impacted by climate change and human water use. To support this work, his group has built a high-resolution global hydrological and water resources model. The results of these models are frequently used in public outreach (e.g. the national Geographic World water Map) and to support web application to aid NGOs and companies in water risk assessments (e.g. the World Resources Institute Aqueduct Water Risk Atlas).

Marc Bierkens is fellow of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) since 2016, was editor of the journal Water Resources Research between 2018-2024 and is currently editor of AGU Advances. In 2023 he received the Henry Darcy Medal from the European Geosciences Union and the Hydrology Award from the American Geophysical Union. Since 2023, he is also a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences. He was chairman of the Boussinesq Center, the network of university hydrology groups in the Netherlands (2007-2011) and of the Netherlands Hydrology Society (2011-2017), which represents over 600 Dutch hydrology professionals. He co-organised the IAHS ModelCARE conference in 2005 in The Netherlands. He was supervisor on 36 completed PhD theses and has been a committee member on > 100. Marc Bierkens (co-) authored about 300 publications, > 240 of which appeared in international peer-reviewed journals. He is principal author of the book “Upscaling and Downscaling Methods for Environmental Research” (2002), co-author of the book “Sampling for Natural Resource Monitoring” (2006) and editor of the book “Climate and the Hydrological Cycle” (2008).