International activities

Many of my publications were the result of intense collaboration with many research groups all over the world. I strongly believe that the best way to do science in my field is with focussed collaboration with experts in different sub-fields.

IODP Expedition 318 and 392
I sailed on an ocean drilling expedition to Wilkes Land, Antarctica, organized by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (Leg 318), in a team of 30 scientists from over 10 countries. In 2022, I participated in IODP Expedition 392, to drill Mesozoic and Cenozoic rocks from the Agulhas Plateau, offshore South Africa.

Current teaching

• Coordinator and teacher of the MSc course 'Ice-Ocean-Climate interactions' within the MSc programs of Earth Sciences
• Coordinator and teacher of Master course “Reconstructing Extreme Climate Transitions using Microfossils”
• Teacher in 2nd year Bachelor course Marine Sciences 2
• Teacher at the first year geology excursion to the Belgian Ardennes.

LPP Foundation

• From January 1st 2012 to December 2020, I was the director of the LPP Foundation, a Utrecht University-based consultancy in Earth Sciences, Biostratigraphy and Energy. Among the focal points of the LPP Foundation was to bring academia and industry closer together. Moreover, we investigated the potential of mass production of the fresh-water fern Azolla to mitigate industrial waste streams and provide added business opportunities from the biomass.
• In the function of director at the LPP Foundation, I organized the “advanced course in organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts” 3 times.

Committee service

• I am member of the GleoLab 'kernteam', a team of 4 who manage the overall scientific activities in the lab facilities of the Geosciences Faculty
• Served on various proposal review panels, e.g., for NWO and DFG

Boards and memberships

• Member of the Utrecht Young Academy between 2019 and 2024 (5-year term), board member since 2021, chair between 2022 and 2024
• Active member of the INSTANT programme of the Scientific Committee of Antarctic Research (SCAR), particularly involved in activities related to (bio)stratigraphy and proxies);
• Member of the Micropaleontological Society, the Americal Association of Stratigraphic Palynologists and the Australian Geological Society
• European Geophysical Union (EGU) member since 2007.

Awards

• KNAW Heineken Young Scientist Award 2018, for Natural Sciences
• European Geophysical Union Arne richter Award (Outstanding Young Scientist) 2014
• I was part of the Utrecht team Beneker that won the ‘Academische Jaarprijs 2007’, a 100k euro grant for the best plan to translate fundamental scientific discoveries to the general public. With this award, I helped developing a website on greenhouse Earth climate, geological time scales and carbon cycle, educative video clips and practical exercises for junior high schools.
• IODP-NL Person of the year 2009.

Grants

• PI on an NWO VENI grant (250keuro) for 3 years fulltime postdoctoral research.
• PI on NWO polar programme grant (280 keuro) "the role of warm ocean in past Antarctic ice sheet variability" 2017.
• PI on NWO polar programme grant (690 keuro) on “Ice-ocean interactions in West Antarctica during rapid transitions in past warm climates” 2024
• PI on ERC starting grant (1.5 Meuro) OceaNice: "Paleoceanography of the Ice-proximal Southern Ocean during past warm climates" 2018
• PI on NWO Open Science Programme grant (50 keuro) FREE SODA, with additional funding from the UU Open Science Programme (16 keuro)
• co-PI on NWO open competition project "Dynamics and climatic imprint of the early Antarctic Circumpolar Current"; PI Anna vd Heydt
• consortium member NWO Summit grant (30Meuro) “EMBRACER”
• I received an NWO cruise participation grant for IODP Expedition 318 and 392.

Other funds raised

• For the LPP Foundation, I successfully raised sponsorships at oil companies, e.g. for the 2012 dinocyst course and for the development of the new PALSYS.org database
• As treasurer of the Stichting KlimaatHelpdesk, I helped raise 130 keuro for the development and running of the website.
• Received as co-PI several Climate-KIC pathfinder grant (about 450 keuro) for the Azolla Farming System (AzoFaSt), a proposal in collaboration with Wageningen and Utrecht Univeristy.

Publications see scopus sciverse or google scholar