Student Corné Vreugdenhil - MSc Geo-information Science

Dear reader,

My name is Corné Vreugdenhil and I studied Geo-information Science. I started with my bachelor Soil, Water, Atmosphere at the Wageningen University. During my bachelor I studied the earth with a focus on meteorological, hydrological and chemical processes in nature. During my bachelor I followed the introductory Geo-information Science courses and found out that I felt comfortable with geo-information science and was talented in working with spatial data. After the introductory courses I knew that I wanted to follow the entire master Geo-information Science study. I chose to follow a Geo-information Science study in Wageningen since I experienced there, during my bachelor study, an enjoyable environment to live and study.

The courses I attended all had the same clear structure, where enough time scheduled to work on the comprehensive part of the course. Next to time for the comprehensive part, there is always time available to continue working on topics you are interested in yourself. Such a way, each course was challenged enough for each student on the topic of own interest! Courses are mainly given by lecturers of Wageningen university, who are specialists in their own working field. I appreciated the enthusiasm of the lecturers, which made the students motivated in attending the courses.

I performed an internship at DNV GL in Arnhem, where my internship research was focusing on the potential of solar energy in the Netherlands. Within the team I worked, I was seen as the ‘GIS expert’ what I found in the beginning misplaced. However, after a few weeks, I was advising colleagues within the team about Geo-information Science-related topics, which I enjoyed a lot! My master thesis was about the spatial distribution of mosquito populations on Rusinga Island in Western-Kenya. I studied the spatial distribution of the mosquitoes using spatial data of the project I worked on (SolarMal project) and tried to explain this spatial distribution with environmental variables like slope, flow accumulation, NDVI or wetness index of the area. These environmental variables I created with a digital elevation model and a satellite image. I enjoyed my thesis very much, since I was able to implement again many things I learnt during the courses and I had the freedom and time to work on the items I was mostly interested in. When I completed my thesis, my supervisors were very enthusiastic about me and I was happy with everything I did. I think the best thing of my thesis was the way I, as student, had the opportunity to discover myself how I would perform the work in the best way, while under the supervision of great people.

Now I just completed my study I am looking for a job. I am also looking to PhD functions since I enjoyed my thesis so much that I do not exclude a continuation in the scientific environment.

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