As an Associate Professor at Delft University of Technology, Femke Vossepoel leads a research group of six PhD candidates and one postdoc in data-assimilation research in the geosciences. The group’s projects involve using geodetic and geophysical observations for estimating state and parameters in dynamic Earth-system models. Research topics include subsidence due to gas- or groundwater extraction, estimating and forecasting earthquakes, droughts, and slope stability.

With a background in oceanographic data assimilation and coupled ocean-atmosphere simulation, combined with industry experience in petroleum engineering and exploration geophysics, Femke Vossepoel connects different disciplines and reaches a broad audience. In 2022, together with Geir Evensen and Peter Jan van Leeuwen, she published an open-access textbook on
data assimilation fundamentals.

From 2020 to December 2023, Femke Vossepoel was head of the reservoir engineering section in the Department of Geoscience and Engineering of TU Delft. With a keen interest in safety and climate resilience, Femke Vossepoel is also a member of the management team of the Delft Safety and Security Institute and a board member of the TU Delft Climate Safety and Security Centre (CASS). She is also a member of the Technical Committee for Ground Motion (Technische commissie bodembeweging, Tcbb) and the international KEM expert subpanel that advice the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy on the risk of ground motion and induced seismicity. Femke Vossepoel coordinates the TU Delft contribution to Destination Earth (DestinE), an EU flagship initiative to build a digital twin of the Earth.
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With a teaching qualification obtained in 2007 at Utrecht University, Femke Vossepoel now teaches courses in the BSc and the MSc programs of Applied Earth Sciences (AES) of the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences of TU Delft. For MSc students in the AES, Environmental Engineering, and Civil Engineering programs, she developed, amongst others, the elective course Data Assimilation for Geosciences and the Effects of Subsurface Engineering course. BSc students in AES know her from her lectures on Environmental Impact Assessment and Subsidence in first- and third-year courses. In addition, Femke Vossepoel is regularly invited as a lecturer at international summer schools on data assimilation. She has established a strong data assimilation research group within the data assimilation researchers she supervises.

Femke Vossepoel receives funding from the Dutch Research Council NWO through the DeepNL research programme that is aimed to improve the fundamental understanding of the dynamics of the deep subsurface under the influence of human interventions. The User Support Programme Space Research of NWO funds three of her current projects involving satellite data. The funding comes from the Delphi consortium and Petrobras for two of her projects.
Femke Vossepoel’s interests are not limited to data assimilation in geosciences. In recent years, she contributed to an international assessment of the COVID pandemic. Having experienced the value of working in diverse groups, Femke Vossepoel is a strong supporter of gender equality and an active member (and former chair of the board of) DEWIS.

 

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