New Aeres lectureship for Deltares expert

Published: 11 December 2020

Miguel Dionisio Pires is now a lecturer at Aeres Hogeschool. The focus of the new position is on ‘Measurements are knowledge: healthy surface water with innovations in monitoring, modelling and interventions’. The university in Almere wants to respond to the growing number of issues relating to water inside and outside urban settings and to establish a more prominent position for aquatic research. Dionisio Pires and his research group want to provide tools to establish better, future-resilient water quality, especially in surface water.

As a new lecturer, he will work on a range of Almere courses, including Applied Biology and Geo Media & Design, and with international students from the Aquatic Ecosystem Analysis course. Students will be involved in a range of assignments and/or internships. In addition, Dionisio Pires will actively seek to establish alliances with parties such as Royal Eijkelkamp, Water Insight and ACACIA Water. Dionisio Pires hopes to use his position as a lecturer to further innovations in water quality management. He says: “It would be fantastic if the innovations were to be really implemented in water quality management and become part of an accepted approach. I also hope to make students enthusiastic about their internship or assignment, and that they will found own spin-off companies as a result. That would be a major achievement.’’

On the right side Miguel Dionisio Pires performing field measurements

Dionisio Pires is an aquatic ecologist/limnologist at Deltares and he works on innovative measurement techniques such as remote sensing, DNA sampling and research with drones. He also leads a range of projects in the field of water quality forecasting. That involves using computer models such as EWACS (a 3D prediction model for floating layers of blue-green algae) and the AlgenRadar (a statistical model for the prediction of concentrations of algal blooms).