Education and Employment
2022 – now
Assistant Professor, Utrecht University
2019-2021
Postdoctoral researcher, ETH Zürich
2014-2019
PhD, Utrecht University, cum laude
Thesis: Reconstructing lost plates of the Panthalassa Ocean
2013-2014
Junior Lecturer, Utrecht University
2011-2013
MSc Geology, Utrecht University, cum laude
Thesis: Kinematic reconstruction of the Caribbean region since the Early Jurassic
2007-2011
BSc Earth Sciences, Utrecht University
Awards and grants
03/2024
Vening Meinesz price for Earth and Environmental Sciences (10k euro) – press release
07/2022
Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions Postdoctoral Fellowship (not accepted)
Road to riches – Unraveling the imprint of geological history on species diversification in the New Caledonia biodiversity hotspot.
12/2021
NWO VENI
Road to riches – Unraveling the imprint of geological history on species diversification in the New Caledonia biodiversity hotspot.
12/2018
ETH Zürich postdoctoral fellowship
Paleogeographic reconstruction of plate boundary zones: analyzing the role of plate tectonically driven habitat changes on extant biodiversity.
12/2017
Outstanding Student Paper Award (OSPA), AGU Fall meeting 2017
12/2016
Outstanding Student Paper Award (OSPA), AGU Fall meeting 2016
05/2014
Escher Prize for best Dutch Earth Scientific MSc thesis 2013
Invited presentations
10/2021
Department of Earth & Atmospheric Sciences, University of Houston (online)
Reconstructing plate motions of subducted Panthalassa plates using paleomagnetic data from subduction complexes – with examples from Japan, New Zealand, Mexico and Costa Rica
06/2021
China University of Geosciences, Beijing (online)
The co-evolution of Earth and life on the world’s most biodiverse continent: how Andean mountain building drove species diversification in South America
04/2021
San Diego State University seminar (online)
Reconstructing plate motions of subducted oceanic plates using paleomagnetic data from subduction complexes – with examples from Japan, New Zealand, Mexico and Costa Rica
01/2021
San Diego State University seminar (online)
Reconstructing plate motions of subducted oceanic plates using paleomagnetic data from subduction complexes – with examples from Japan, New Zealand, Mexico and Costa Rica
06/2019
University of Montpellier
The complex tectonic history of the Caribbean Plate – a journey from Jurassic formation at the Farallon-Phoenix ridge via Cretaceous subduction initiation and an Eocene plate boundary reorganization towards the modern intra-Americas setting.
12/2017
AGU Fall meeting, New Orleans
Absolute plate motion control since the Triassic from the Cocos slab and its associated subduction record in Mexico
09/2017
Earthquake Research Institute, University of Tokyo
Quantitative kinematic reconstruction of lost oceanic plates – Unraveling the tectonic history of the Panthalassa Ocean
09/2016
GSA2016, Denver
Eocene northern Caribbean plate boundary reorganization: regionally or globally forced?