11,000 young researchers have obtained a PhD from TU Delft

- EN - NL

It was a very memorable day for PhD Amey Vasulkar last Thursday, the 19th of September. Not only did he successfully defend his promotion on Arctic Sea Ice in Tide Models, but he was also the 11,000th student to obtain a PhD from TU Delft. We are incredibly proud of and thankful for every single one of these 11,000 PhDs who started their scientific journey with us and continuously strive to change the world through their scientific innovations.

How does the Arctic sea ice affect the tides?

A great example of how research can impact the world is Amey’s PhD project at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, and Computer Science. Because of climate change, the Arctic sea ice is receding at an alarming rate. This affects many domains, including the relationship between Arctic sea ice and global tides. Seasonal fluctuations of sea ice are known to affect tides through the dissipation of ice and water friction. Given the continued decline in sea ice, there is a need to develop accurate (global) tidal models that account for this dissipation. Global tidal models are crucial for several applications, including navigation and coastal flood management, underscoring the need for an efficient model that accounts for sea ice-induced tidal dissipation.

Floral surprise

And that’s exactly what Amey did. His thesis successfully addressed key questions regarding the impact of sea ice on tides, introducing innovative parameterizations and exploring new data sources for tidal current estimation, thus advancing the understanding of Arctic tidal dynamics and ice-water interactions. Because of this momentous occasion, the doctoral candidate and his supervisors were surprised with a gift and flowers by the chairman of this promotion (Prof Max Mulder from the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering).

On the 13th of March 2022, we celebrated 10,000 PhDs at TU Delft. We see that the number of PhD students at TU Delft is increasing faster and faster, which is exciting to see!

About Dr Amey Vasulkar

Amey was born in Pune, India in 1993. He completed a Master of Science in Scientific Computing at TU Berlin and a Master of Science Applied Mathematics at TU Delft. His PhD supervisor was Prof M. Verlaan and his co-supervisor was Dr D.C. Slobbe (both from the Mathematical Physics group). His project was part of the FAST4NL project (Forecasting Arctic Surges and Tides for the Netherlands).