I started my tenure track position at WUR in January 2019, after having worked at Biometris, Wageningen University & Research, as academic teacher and life sciences modeller.
I work on the development and analysis of models of socio-ecological systems, semi-natural systems in which people and their natural environment are intertwined and that provide essential services, such as fisheries and agricultural systems. I have worked both in an academic setting and a more applied setting, namely the use of models in policy settings, primarily in the quality assessment of models used for nature policy evaluations. My main interest is the development and application of new model analysis methodologies, including bifurcation analysis techniques for models of differential equations, and sensitivity analysis techniques for agent-based models.
I currently work – and will continue to work – on the conceptualization and quantification of resilience in socio-ecological systems. In the face of climate change and a growing world population, new concepts for the quantification of resilience are direly needed to assess the capacity of socio-ecological systems to deal with future perturbations. Resilience emerges from the various, changing interactions between, and behaviours of, human agents in socio-ecological systems. Perturbations change these systems and in turn change their response to future perturbations. This means such systems constantly evolve. This also means that models of socio-ecological systems are needed to understand the dynamics of resilience of these systems, and that these models require the inclusion of the appropriate human behaviours and interactions. This in turn also implies new methodologies are needed to properly analyse the resilience properties of these models and the systems they represent.
I was a tenure-track researcher in the 4TU.DeSIRE programme.