Introduction

A bit of history: I received my Master's from Leiden Observatory in The Netherlands. Back then, the relatively new formalism 'Smoothed Particle Hydrodynamics' was getting popular and the question was how well it would deal with astrophysical fluid dynamics problems. Before being able to answer this question, we first needed an answer to the question: how well does the formalism deal with benchmark problems, for which we know the answer. That's what I did for my thesis: cook up some FORTRAN code, based on the SPH formalism and run tests, first on one-dimensional problems, then on a two-dimensional problem. Next, I went to the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, as part of the small micrometeorology group within the Earth Sciences Department. Here I did research on turbulent energy transport over a melting ice sheet. This project was part of the GIMEX programme: the Greenland Ice Margin Experiment. One of the scientific goals of this experiment was to make a detailed study of the atmospheric boundary layer over a melting ice surface. By getting a better understanding of the processes involved, we will be able to improve computer models used for studying climate change and sea level rise. The project consisted of a one-month measurment campaign on the Greenland ice sheet, followed by data analysis and data modeling.

After about 6 years of freelancing and working in the Internet industry, I joined the team of the Astrophysics Data System (ADS), located at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. At the ADS, I work on a broad range of subjects. I do metadata harvesting and processing, system management and user support, to name a few tasks. Furthermore, I do bibliometric research on the basis of the unique ADS bibliographic and usage dataset.

This page holds a mishmash of references to what has been and what is... and it is always out-of-date.

"Lots of people talk to animals," said Pooh. "Not that many listen though." "That's the problem."