Marcel van Gent appointed as professor of storm surge barriers
Expert(s) |
Marcel van Gent
Marcel van Gent has been appointed Professor of storm surge barriers at the Delft University of Technology. Marcel combines this new position with his current roles as Professor of coastal structures at the Delft University of Technology, senior expert at Deltares, and editor-in-chief of the scientific journal Coastal Engineering (Elsevier).
For Marcel van Gent, everything revolves around the question of how coastal areas can remain safe and liveable, now and in the future. For over thirty years, he has been researching how dikes, breakwaters and other hydraulic structures can function optimally and be made climate resilient. He already did this in his role as a senior expert in coastal structures at Deltares and as Professor of coastal structures at Delft University of Technology, and now also as Professor of storm surge barriers.
His research focuses on the interaction between water and coastal and hydraulic structures under extreme conditions such as storms. In his research and that of his MSc and PhD students, physical modelling is frequently used in combination with numerical models and/or machine learning techniques. Marcel is also chair of the organising committee for the International Conference on Coastal Engineering in Delft (ICCE 2030) and a member of the Deltares Science Council.
Marcel: “I look forward to tackling challenging issues related to storm surge barriers together with students, researchers and stakeholders. Climate change and the limited lifespan of storm surge barriers call for more engineers and researchers with expertise in this field. Thanks to the ongoing support from the Association of Hydraulic Engineers and Rijkswaterstaat, we can indeed train more of these experts.”
