Bart van den Hurk has a PhD on land surface modelling, obtained in Wageningen in 1996. He developed a scientific career at KNMI as researcher, involved in studies addressing modelling land surface processes in regional and global climate models, data assimilation of soil moisture, and constructing regional climate change scenarios. Since 2005 he was part-time professor “Regional Climate Analysis” at IMAU (Utrecht University). From 2014 onwards he occupies the chair “Climate Interactions with the Socio-Ecological System” at the Institute for Environmental Studies at Amsterdam Vrije Universiteit. There he teaches masters students, supervises PhD-students. Between 2007 and 2010 he was chair of the WCRP-endorsed Global Land-Atmosphere System Studies (GLASS) panel, and between 2006 and 2012 member of the council of the Netherlands Climate Changes Spatial Planning program. Between 2008 and 2015 he was member of the board of the division “Earth and Life Sciences” of the Dutch Research Council (NWO-ALW). He is convenor at a range of incidental and periodic conferences, and was editor for Hydrology and Earth System Science (HESS). At KNMI he was member of the Coregroup Institute Reorganisation between 2011 and 2013. He was strongly involved with the KNMI global modelling project EC-Earth, and is co-author of the land surface modules of the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). He led international research projects on Soil Moisture Data Assimilation (ELDAS), water climate services (IMPREX) and climate impacts in a globalized world (RECEIPT). Currently he is Lead Author of the 6th IPCC Assessment Report (WG-I). Between summer 2014 and Feb 2019 he was head of the weather and climate model research division at KNMI. From March 2019 onwards he works as strategic research manager at Deltares, Delft.
A strong drive in many aspects of my live gives me a strong incentive to exploit my talents. In my professional live I am driven by a scientific and personal curiosity about how things and people function: how does the complex climate system work, how does a group perform effectively, what motivates a person, how to come to a broadly accepted decision? I can combine a personal attitude towards people and groups with a content- and result-driven management style, realizing that it takes motivated and satisfied people to perform optimally. My theatre and music background have given me a good sense of how to engage people, and I am not too shy to apply these experiences in professional settings. I am aware of the need to find a good balance between hard work and relaxing, but this cannot avoid that my agenda is always filled, and many topics keep me busy simultaneously.
