As from 1 September 2009, Prof. Dr ir Huub Rijnaarts will work as a professor of Water Technology in the Sub-department of Environmental Technology. His research focuses on the re-use and purification of water and the protection of water resources, especially in the urban and industrial environment. In naming a second professor in this field at Wageningen UR, Environmental Technology has now become the biggest water and environmental technology group in the Netherlands.
Huub Rijnaarts studied Environmental Sciences in Wageningen and graduated with a specialty in soil and ground water quality. He also received his PhD from Wageningen with a doctoral thesis on the attachment of micro-organisms on material. This was a collaboration between the departments of microbiology and colloide chemistry. In the last years before coming to Wageningen UR, Prof. Rijnaarts was the head of the department of Water and Soil Quality at Deltares. There he worked, mostly with Wageningen UR, on large projects in the European framework programmes and in Dutch soil and (ground)water research programmes such as NOBIS and SKB. He is also co-author of 28 scientific publications and more than 100 applied science reports.
Director Peter van den Elzen is very happy with the appointment. "The Sub-department of Environmental Technology consists of a group of extremely innovative scientists who are continuing to build on a long tradition in Wageningen. Water and energy are very important fields of interest within AFSG and the technological contribution of the sub-department is valuable to the department and the Biobased Sciences cluster. Huub's appointment confirms the enormous interest within AFSG in sustainability and biobased".
Environmental Technology
Wageningen University's Sub-department of Environmental Technology focuses on four themes: recyclable matter, renewable energy, re-usable water and urban environmental technology and management.
Since 2003, Cees Buisman has been the professor of Biological Recycle Technology and focuses on sustainable energy within this field. He also works on reclaiming components from waste water using biocrystillization, bioelectrochemistry and worms. "Huub brings with him new expertise and networks in the field of water chains, which will give our international position in education and research a strong, new stimulus."
Environmental technology closely collaborates with industry through TTIW Wetsus, among other organisations, and with governments in the field of Urban Environmental Management. The department's strong national position is combined with a matching international development, which expresses itself in a growing number of students and 50 PhDs.