The University of Luxembourg announces that Prof. Tonie van Dam has tendered her resignation as Vice-Rector for strategic projects to focus on her research activities in her fields of excellence of Geophysics and space-based Earth observation.
Prof. van Dam will also continue to contribute to the University’s Interdisciplinary Space Master, launched earlier this year. Prof. van Dam will be based at the University’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Security and Trust (SnT), from January 2020.
Prof. van Dam was appointed Vice-Rector for Doctoral Education and Training, International Relations and Gender in 2017. Since 2018 she was Vice-Rector for strategic projects.
“I thank Prof. Tonie Van Dam for her energy and the commitment that she invested to help the University of Luxembourg move forward on the path of excellence,” says Prof. Stéphane Pallage, Rector of the University of Luxembourg. “In her function as Vice-Rector, as well as in her previous missions, Tonie has worked tirelessly on behalf of students and staff. I would like to thank her in particular for the outstanding way she led the development and launch of our Interdisciplinary Space Master programme. I wish Tonie all the best for this next step in her career.”
“I am thankful for the opportunity to have contributed to the development of the University of Luxembourg as Vice-Rector, and I am proud of what was achieved”, states Prof. Tonie van Dam. “I feel I can bring a similarly valuable contribution to consolidate and build the University’s claim to excellence by increasing the focus on my research work in the future. I am thrilled to be able to find more time to develop my research in space-related topics.”
Prof. Tonie van Dam holds a PhD in Geophysics from the University of Colorado, USA, and is a recognised authority in the field of theoretical geophysics, satellite observations of the Earth, cryospheric mass change, and the global water cycle. She was awarded the Vening Meinesz Medal by the European Geosciences Union in 2019, and the Grand Prix 2017 in Geological Sciences from the Institut Grand-Ducal in Luxembourg. She is a member of the American Geophysical Union and of the European Geophysical Society.