I am an Assistant Professor in the interdisciplinary research group Computational Geo-Ecology, in the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics.

Research interests

I am fascinated with avian flight behaviour, whether during migration, foraging movements or when fleeing from potential danger. Birds fly through a challenging environment whose characteristics vary within and between days, seasons, years, altitudes and landscapes and they have evolved diverse strategies to contend with this variability.   Atmospheric dynamics may be an energetic source or sink during flight. By integrating models, diverse measurements of bird movement (GPS tracking,radar, field observations) and meteorology, I am trying to understand the short and long term consequences of behavioural responses to dynamic atmospheric conditions at different scales in space and time.
The development of a new GPS tracking system at UvA (www.uva-bits.nl) has recently enabled me to study the detailed movements of individual birds throughout their annual routine. This provides great opportunities to study the diversity and variation of foraging and migratory behaviour at the individual and species level and its potential importance in an ever changing world.
Due to the multi-disciplinary nature of my research, I am privileged to collaborate with diverse researchers with expertise in specific species, technological developments, meteorology, modelling, data management and visualization. While developing tools for data analysis and visualization is not the main aim of my research, it is often a fruitful investment which I enjoy being involved in.

• Follow the reaction of birds to fireworks on New Year's Eve

Education

I am involved in the BSc programs of Biology and Future Planet Studies as well as the MSc programs Ecology and Evolution, and Earth Sciences.  I coordinate and develop course material for "Toekomstperspectief voor de aarde", provide guest lectures, computer exercises (GIS and working with databases), and am involved in excursions in several courses.  My contributions are usually related to biodiversity or working with biological data. Furthermore I supervise students working on their BSc and MSc thesis projects.
Every two years, I coordinate an international summer school on Animal Movement Analysis for graduate students, together with my colleagues from CGE. Our most recent course was held in the summer of 2012 (see photo below).

• Descriptions of several courses

Links

• Computational Geo-Ecology website

• UvA-BiTS (UvA Bird Tracking System)

• IBED website

• Follow the reaction of birds to fireworks

Public lectures & more

In addition to speaking at scientific conferences and workshops, on occasion I have been invited to give lectures or interviews for a more general public. These events have been, without exception, stimulating and great fun.   I'd like to thank all those that have invited me, come to listen and ask great questions.
Below are links to a few of these events:

• CONGO Congress 2011 (CONGres): Motion in Biology

• Wakker worden kinderlezingen NEMO

• Cafe Scientifique: Groene herfst 2010

• Falconer natural history lecture series (spring 2011)

• Vroege Vogels interview about birds and fireworks on New Year's Eve (2011)

People

I find that one of the great benefits of research is working with different people, and when doing interdisciplinary research, this often means people with diverse backgrounds, expertise and even research cultures. While this can be challenging at times it is also an enriching experience.

Collaboration

I collaborate with several people on a regular basis; those I work most closely with are Willem Bouten and Emiel van Loon from CGE on migration, foraging ecology and methodology, as well as with the PhD candidates I am supervising. On radar ornithology related issues I work with Adriaan Dokter from CGE, Hidde Leijnse from KNMI and Hans van Gasteren from the Royal Netherlands Air Force. I work closely with Kees Camphuysen from the NIOZ on the foraging ecology of lesserblack backed gulls ( Larus fuscus ).

• Kees Camphuysen personal website

• Lesser black backed gull tracking project

European Network for the Radar surveillance of Animal Movement (ENRAM)

Recently a mutli-disciplinary group of researchers that are using or developing ground based radar to monitor weather or animal movements in Europe have come together to create a currently informal research network.  One of the aims of our network are to bring our expertise together to monitor and predict animal movement patterns on a continental scale, while improving meteorological products from weather radar.
Hopefully in the not to distant future we will have a website where you can learn more about this initiative. We are also proud to announce that the ENRAM COST Action (ES-1305) was approved by the COST Committee of Senior Officials at its 187th meeting in May 2013.

PhD Supervision

I am currently supervising the PhD research of Jamie McLaren and Wouter Vansteelant.  On 18 October 2012 Michael Kemp received his PhD.  They are all working on diverse aspects of avian migration, see their websites for more details:

• Jamie McLaren

• Wouter Vansteelant

• Michael Kemp

MSc students

I am always on the lookout for enthusiastic MSc students, interested in doing research on bird migration, foraging ecology or flight strategies and not afraid of working with real data or simulation models. If you are interested, contact me for an appointment.

• Geen nevenwerkzaamheden