Royal Honours for Herman Russchenberg

Herman Russchenberg, Professor of Geoscience and Remote Sensing at the Faculty of Civil Engineering and Geosciences (CEG) and TU Delft Pro Vice Rector for Climate Action, was made an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau in Leiden.

Herman Russchenberg's research focuses on the observation of clouds, precipitation, turbulence and aerosols in the atmosphere, using remote sensing equipment such as radar and LIDAR. Early on, Russchenberg recognised the importance of atmospheric observations for climate research. He was thus the driving force behind the CESAR observatory in Cabauw, a collaboration of Dutch universities and institutes that, under his leadership, grew into one of the most complete and advanced atmospheric monitoring stations in the world.

He was also the initiator of the Ruisdael Observatory, a national measurement infrastructure project aiming to measure and model the atmosphere over the Netherlands with an accuracy of 100 metres. He was also closely involved in the creation of ACTRIS, the European measurement network for trace gases, aerosols and clouds.

Russchenberg has been instrumental in putting ‘climate’ on the agenda within TU Delft. In 2020, he took the initiative to bring together all scientists working on this topic in the university-wide Climate Action Programme. The programme includes research and education on climate and climate solutions, but is also involved with the sustainability of TU Delft's own campus. Russchenberg is a gifted speaker who does not shy away from public debate. He is a scientist who not only seeks out and pushes the boundaries of our knowledge, but also actively communicates these insights and their relevance to society.