People
The sea-level group at the NIOZ Department of Estuarine and Delta Systems is based in Yerseke. We are part of the NIOZ sea-level centre of expertise.
In our group, we consider sea-level change as a big puzzle with lots of moving parts, and we are keen to understand how present-day climate change is driving each of the pieces. We include as many contributions as possible (oceans, ice, land, etc) and look both at the recent past (20th century) and at projecting future changes. We are interested in many facets of sea-level change, such as 1) projecting future regional sea-level changes 2) attributing sea level changes, and in particular the regional differences, to natural or human forcings 3) the impact and interaction of sea-level rise on the coast (ecological, physical, sociological processes), and 4) the closure of the 20th century sea-level budget.
Dr. Ir. Aimée Slangen (Group Lead)
In January 2017 I joined the NIOZ Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research as a Tenure Track researcher, in the Department of Estuarine & Delta Systems (EDS). As of July 2020 I am a tenured senior researcher in the same department. I am leading the NIOZ research on understanding and projecting (regional) sea-level change, and on translating sea-level change to the coastal/delta/estuarine environment. I like to take a broad approach and study both global and regional sea-level change in response to climate change. I am a founding member of the NIOZ Sea Level Centre. I did my PhD-research on regional sea-level modelling at the Institute for Marine and Atmospheric research in Utrecht (IMAU) with Roderik van de Wal and Bert Vermeersen (TU Delft), and defended my thesis in December 2012. I then moved to Tasmania for a 3-yr postdoc at CSIRO with John Church, followed by a 1-yr stint in the UK (but working for IMAU). I was a contributing author on IPCC AR5 Chapter 13, the work from my PhD formed the basis for Section 13.6: Regional Sea Level Change. I am a Lead Author on the IPCC AR6 report, Chapter 9 (Oceans, Cryosphere and Sea Level), and Contributing author to the SPM and Chapters 1, 2, 4 and 12. You can find a list of my projects and functions here, and my outreach activities here.
Dr. Jeemijn Scheen (Postdoc, October 2022-present)
I am a physical oceanographer and joined the sea level group at NIOZ in October 2022. I am modeling sea level along the Dutch coast in high resolution with the ROMS model. My research is part of the HiRISE project, which aims to predict ice shelf stability and melt in Antarctica. These predicted scenarios, which have a different amount of ice melt with different timing and location, lead to scenarios for sea level rise that we can model along the Dutch coast. We will also model how sea-level extremes (storms, tides, waves, surges) behave in these scenarios and if they would be higher than coastal structures such as dikes. I did my studies at Utrecht University: bachelors in physics and mathematics followed by a master in theoretical physics. My MSc thesis was about black holes in string theory under supervision of Stefan Vandoren. I then worked 2 years at an electricity grid company on a.o. renewable energy, before coming back to academia. For my PhD, I was at the University of Bern, Switzerland, under supervision of Thomas Stocker. We investigated how strong the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), which includes the Gulf Stream, was in the last ice age by comparing model results with sediment cores (of protactinium and thorium) from the ocean floor.
Elisa van Merkesteijn, MSc (PhD, May 2025-present)
[coming soon]
Former group members
Dr. Victor Malagon-Santos (Postdoc, April 2021-Dec 2024)
Dr. Carolina Camargo (PhD Candidate, Jan 2019-Feb 2023)
Dr. Tim Hermans (PhD Candidate, Jan 2018 - July 2022)