Bert Vermeersen

Prof. Dr. Bert Vermeersen is a Senior Scientist (0.2 fte) at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ), specializing in sea level change and planetary oceanography. He concurrently serves as a Full Professor and holds the Chair on Planetary Exploration at TU Delft (0.7 fte at Aerospace Engineering and 0.1 fte at Civil Engineering & Geosciences). His dual research focus includes applied coastal studies and fundamental planetary science.

Education: Astronomy PhD from Utrecht University, postdoctoral research in Italy (Bologna/Milan) and Germany (Stuttgart). He established NIOZ's Sea Level Center of Expertise, leading projects like regional sea-level scenarios for the Wadden Sea (collaborating with Deltares/TNO). His work integrates geophysics, satellite data, and climate modeling to address coastal subsidence, ice sheet collapse impacts, and extraterrestrial ocean dynamics on moons like Europa.

Key achievements include modeling regional sea-level variations (e.g., West Antarctic Ice Sheet collapse effects) and contributing to the Netherlands Journal of Geosciences. Active in interdisciplinary projects such as tidal-induced fluid dynamics on icy moons (NWO-funded 2016-2020).

Labs/Teams: Leads multi-institutional collaborations at NIOZ's Estuarine & Delta Systems department, TU Delft's Planetary Exploration group, and the Origins Center. Engaged in national marine facilities and coastal defense advisory work.