Jeroen Aerts
If you want to prevent floods, you need more than just knowledge of climate, how water behaves, and how to build dikes. Socio-economic factors such as spatial planning and human behavior are at least as important-and perhaps even more so. For instance, how wise is it to allow population growth in vulnerable areas? And to what extent are people willing to evacuate when a flood warning is issued? These are the kinds of questions that lie at the heart of the work of Jeroen Aerts, who is a professor of Water and Climate Risk at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. With his multidisciplinary approach, he brings a refreshing enrichment to scientific knowledge about flood risks.The new members - ten women and seven men - don’t just excel in their research; they also attach great importance to playing a role in society as scientists. They will be officially installed on 29 September 2025.
Read about the other new members on the KNAW website.
