AOGS Fellows

2024 AOGS Fellows
Petrus J. VAN OEVELEN

International GEWEX Project Office/
George Mason University

Petrus (Peter) J. van Oevelen was born in The Netherlands, a country where both the struggles with water as well as the benefits of water are clear. Hence, from an early age the importance of water was instilled in him. In 1991 he obtained his engineering degree in Water Resources, Land Management and Earth Observation. In 2000 he obtained his PhD in Earth Observation with an emphasis on microwave remote sensing and soil moisture. During his PhD studies he was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study stochastic methods and regional hydroclimate modeling at University of California at Davis, USA. After his PhD (2000) he co-founded SarVision B.V. a company that specialized in the use of microwave remote sensing of the environment in particular monitoring of tropical deforestation. During this period, he also lectured Physics of Remote Sensing and supported (under)graduate and PhD students at Wageningen University. In 2004 he moved to the European Space Agency as the European GEWEX Coordinator and to support the land mission unit as scientist. Since 2008 he is the director of the International GEWEX Project office (IGPO) in support of the World Climate Research Programme. In that role he has initiated many new initiatives around the world in support of international research collaboration on water and climate issues. In June 2020 he became Professor of Practice in Climate Dynamics at George Mason University, Fairfax, USA. Peter is internationally recognized as an expert on earth observation, water resources and climate change. In his current career he maintains focused on facilitating the north-south and east-west dialogue on international research collaboration on water, energy, and climate as well as environmental conservation.