prof.dr.ir. AD (Tom) Buijse

Dr. Ir. Tom Buijse (1962) is a specialist in fish-based assessment and ecological restoration of inland waters. He graduated from Wageningen University in 1987 as population biologist and obtained his PhD degree in 1992 on fish population dynamics in a large shallow freshwater lake. From 1993 onwards his research and consultancy concentrated on ecological rehabilitation of large rivers such as the Rhine, Danube and Volga and fish communities as indicator for freshwater ecosystem quality. His expertise on the potential to restore freshwater ecosystems was subsequently applied to implement the European Water Framework Directive in the Netherlands and to develop fish-based assessment methods for rivers. He has 50+ peer-reviewed scientific publications and was the prime organizer of and guest-editor for international conferences on “Large river rehabilitation” in 2003 and on “Novel Approaches to Assess and Rehabilitate Modified Rivers” in 2015. From 2011-2015 he coordinated the 4-yr large integrated EU-funded research project REFORM (Restoring Rivers for Effective Catchment Management) involving 26 European partners. His present research focuses on the hydromorphological rehabilitation of rivers and tuning the implementation of environmental legislation with other socio-economic demands such as fisheries management, flood protection and navigation. His 30-yrs research and consultancy experience covers rivers, floodplains, lakes and deltas. April 2020 he has been appointed as special professor freshwater fish ecology at the WUR for 1 d/wk to optimize fish resources and species diversity in inland waters.

Supervisor of PhD candidates: Niels Brevé, Jena Edwards, Panos Panagiotopoulos, Melanie Meijer zu Schlochtern, Donné Mathijssen and  Agness Sililo Musutu