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Career

I started my professional career in Ethiopia (picture 1), where I worked on my MSc thesis in Tropical Land &Water Management (1970). Soon followed a PhD in Soil Physics in 1976. From 1976-1989 I worked in multi-disciplinary research teams in Mali, West-Africa and Indonesia on Primary Production Systems in the  in Sahel and on Educational Curriculum building in the field of Soil & Water.  I spend 6 months in the USA at Texas A&M University as a Fulbright Fellow. From 1991 I became full professor (Picture 2) in Land and Water Management of Rainfed Agriculture at Wageningen University & Research (WUR). Later the group name and research focus changed to Land Degradation and Development (picture 3). Working with and the coordination of a large interdisciplinary research team in the Sahel: ‘Antenne Sahelienne’ remained part of the job. In May 2012 I retired from WUR, see my farewell address (Picture 4). During my scientific career I published over 400 publications (see publication list) covering the domains soil physics, soil & water conservation, water balance, agronomic modelling, land use planning & policy and research and training. More than 60 PhD students (see PhD alumni list), from all over the world, obtained their PhD under my supervision. All the PhD projects involved field measurements (for empirical evidence) in combination with modelling (for theory development and scenario analysis). I supervised several European Union research projects in different parts of the world and served at the council of the European Society for Soil Conservation. For about 20 years I was chief-editor of the Tropical Resources Management Papers of WUR of which more than 100 volumes appeared. I also served as Scientific Advisor at Royal Eijkelkamp for more than 20 years. Currently I am involved in a number of projects, among which are an innovative drinking water project in Benin and a community shared vegetable growing project in the Wageningen locality.

 

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