About Sebastiaan Mestdagh

Dr. Sebastiaan Mestdagh is a marine benthic ecologist and works since 2023 as an advisor/researcher at the department of Ecosystems and Sediment Dynamics (ESD) of Deltares. He obtained a PhD in marine science at Ghent University (UGent) in Belgium, focusing on the interactions between sediment processes and the functioning of the benthic ecosystem. Afterwards, he worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research (NIOZ) and later for Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). In projects at those institutes, he worked on ecologically sustainable reuse of sediment in the Scheldt delta, mapping seafloor habitats in the North Sea and the use of multibeam sonar for detection of buried shell beds.

At Deltares, Sebastiaan works on projects that contribute to a healthy delta and (North) Sea. This ranges from projects on mapping habitat suitability of benthic animals in the North Sea, over studying the ecological importance of old shell beds in the Wadden Sea, to developing knowledge on the ecological problems (mostly stratification and hypoxia) in Lakes Grevelingen and Veere. He is also involved in the development of the research agenda for the Scheldt estuary as a member of the project group Nature of the Flemish-Dutch Scheldt Commission (Vlaams-Nederlandse Scheldecommissie, VNSC). Sebastiaan is an active member of the Marine Ecology and offshore Activities team (MEA) at Deltares.