VUB PhD student wins prize King Baudouin Foundation

Prize Ernest Du Bois for research on water reservoirs and climate change

Friday, January 29, 2021 — Inne Vanderkelen has won the Prize Ernest Du Bois for het ongoing PhD research about the role of reservoirs in our changing climate. The Prize Ernest Du Bois, awarded by the King Baudouin Foundation, supports young PhD students conducting research on water and its availability around the world.

Inne Vanderkelen is working at the VUB Department of Hydrology with Prof. Dr. Wim Thiery as main supervisor and Prof. Dr. Nicole van Lipzig and Prof. Dr. Ann van Griensven as co-supervisors. In her research, Vanderkelen studies the interaction between artificial reservoirs and the climate at a regional and global scale. She published studies on dam management and climate change at Lake Victoria

Now she is focusing on implementing dams and reservoirs in a global climate model. Her latest publication on global heat uptake by inland waters, including reservoirs directly is relevant for the upcoming report of the The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The Ernest Dubois Prize contains a sum of 20 000 euros, which she will use in the further course of her PhD.

contact:

[email protected]

References

Vanderkelen, I., van Lipzig, N.P.M., Thiery, W. (2018) Modelling the water balance of Lake Victoria (East Africa) - Part 1: Observational analysis. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 22, 5509-5525.

Vanderkelen, I., van Lipzig, N.P.M., Thiery, W. (2018) Modelling the water balance of Lake Victoria (East Africa) - Part 2: Future projections. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 22, 5527-5549.

Vanderkelen I., van Lipzig N.P.M., Lawrence D. M., Droppers B., Gosling S. N., Janssen A. B. G., Marcé R., Müller-Schmied H., Perroud M., Pierson D., Pokhrel Y., Satoh Y., Schewe J., Seneviratne S. I., Stepanenko V. M., Tan Z., Woolway R. I., Thiery W. (2020) Global heat uptake by inland waters. Geographical Research Letters. 47(12), e2020GL087867.