Date and place of birth
15 June 1958, Hemelum, province of Friesland, The Netherlands
Education
1976
(June) - Eindexamen Atheneum B, Magister Alvinus Scholengemeenschap, Sneek
1980
(15 December) - Candidate Biology-B5, Univ. of Groningen;
1984
(30 November) - Doctoral (Drs) Biology CUM LAUDE, Univ. of Groningen;
1994
(6 May) - Doctor (Dr) Biology CUM LAUDE, Univ. of Groningen
Disciplines
Animal ecology, Marine biology, Environmental physiology of birds, Evolutionary biology, Ethology
AWARDS, GRANTS AND HONOURS
| 1989 |
Herman Klomp Prize for Dutch Ornithology, awarded jointly by Netherlands Ornithologists’ Union, SOVON-Bird Monitoring Netherlands and Vogelbescherming-BirdLife Netherlands
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| 1994 |
Dutch National Zoology Prize, awarded by the Netherlands Zoological Society (NDV)
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| 1996 |
Recipient of the five year PIONIER-grant of the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO)
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| 1998 |
Corresponding Fellow of the American Ornithologists’ Union
|
| 2000 |
Research grant from the Committee for Research and Exploration of National Geographic Society, Washington, D.C. for work on the ecophysiology of shorebirds in Northwest Australia (an 8 page feature on the research and TP, called ‘Tale of the Hot Knot’ and illustrated by Jan van de Kam, is scheduled for the February 2003 issue of National Geographic Magazine)
|
| 2001 |
Elected as Member of the Fryske Akademy (Frisian Academy of Arts & Sciences), Ljouwert
|
| 2001 |
A new subspecies of Red Knot from the New Siberian Islands was named Calidris canutus piersmai (by P.S. Tomkovich in the Bulletin of the British Ornithologists’ Club 121: 257-263)
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| 2002 |
Named as one of the six most promissing Dutch scientists (‘Toppers met stip’) in Elsevier Magazine (16 March 2002), an assignement based on citation-scores (CWTS, Leiden)
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| 2004 |
Recipient of the national Dutch Nature Conservation Award from the Prince Bernhard Culture Fund
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| 2004 |
Winner of the Ornithologen Preis of the German Ornithological Society
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| 2004 |
Recipient of the Luc Hoffmann Medal for Excellence in Science and Conservation, for the first time awarded by Wetlands International
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Employment record
September 1984: Consultant (Wader & Benthos specialist) with DHV, NEDECO in South Korea;
August 1985-February 1987, June-August 1987: Research Biologist at the Rijksdienst voor de IJsselmeerpolders, Lelystad (Scientific department);
April 1988 to October 1992: University of Groningen, PhD position in Behavioural Biology, Zoological Laboratory, in co-operation with Department of Coastal Systems at NIOZ (Netherlands Institute for Sea Research), Texel;
December 1993-May 1994: Temporary contracts as Editor and Research Biologist at NIOZ;
June 1994-June 1996: Research Biologist at NIOZ, Texel;
July 1996- June 2003: Senior Research Scientist at the Department of Marine Ecology of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) (0.9 fte) and Associate Professor at the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies at the University of Groningen (0.2 fte).
From June 2003 >>Professor of Animal Ecology at the Centre for Ecological and Evolutionary Studies at the University of Groningen (0.7 fte) and Senior Research Scientist at the Department of Marine Ecology and Evolution of the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) (0.4 fte).
