Tim van Emmerik, TU Delft, Delta
Tim van Emmerik

PhD student Tim van Emmerik showed that radar technology in space can be used to measure how ‘thirsty’ plants and crops are. He found that this could play a key role in improving our understanding of the interrelationship between ecosystems and the water and carbon cycles. Van Emmerik wrote a poem about it.

I’ll tell you how my research went,
What we know from biology,
The functioning of ev’ry tree,
Depends on its water content

So what if there’s a little less
Of this epic liquid of life

Will plants just stop to thrive
Or will we end up in a mess

Plant death is a catastrophe
For that we need to explore new ways

To ensure food security

Simply said, to save the human race
We need more lonely satellites

For drought detection from out’r space

Tim van Emmerik

Tim van Emmerik will defend his thesis Water stress detection using radar on Friday 1 December.
More information can be found here.