Research

Research Priorities: Influence of climate changes on fluvial and aeolian processes, reconstruction of the paleoclimate, and river dynamics.

Jef Vanderberghe is a Belgian geologist who researches and reconstructs the paleoclimate. His work focuses on river and wind sediments and is frequently interdisciplinary in nature.

Jef Vandenberghe’s research spans regions from across Europe all the way to China and Indonesia. He is an expert in sediment deposits that can reveal information about the climate during the Stone Age. To this end, he focuses particularly on former permafrost and monsoon regions. The work he and his research team do is typically interdisciplinary in nature, and ranges from paleoecology to sedimentology and geomorphology.

One result of Vandenberghe’s work is the creation of a non-linear model of erosion in rivers due to climate change. He also discovered that, over time, internal erosion processes in rivers have a greater impact than that exercised by external forces.

Career

• since 2011 Professor Emeritus, Department of Earth Sciences, Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• since 2009 Visiting Professor, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia
• since 2009 Concurrent Professor, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China
• 1976-2011 Professor, Department of Earth Sciences, VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• 1968-1976 Assistant, Institute of Earth Sciences, University of Louvain (UCLouvain), Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
• 1973 Doctorate, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
• 1967-1973 Degree in Geography, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium

Functions

• 2006-2010 Chairperson, Fluvial Archives Group (FLAG)
• 2005-2010 Vice-Dean, Department of Earth Sciences, VU Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
• 2002-2010 Vice-Chairperson, German Quaternary Association (DEUQUA), Germany
• since 1996 Founding Member, Fluvial Archives Group (FLAG)
• 1995-2004 Chairperson, Department Climate change and periglacial environments, International Geographical Union (IGU) Commission

Projects

• 2003-2007 Participating Researcher, Project “Sedimentation Processes on the Portuguese Margin: The Role of Continental Climate, Ocean Circulation, Sea Level and Neotectonics”, German Research Foundation (DFG), Germany
• 1998 Coordinator, Subproject “Climatic reconstruction of the Weichselian Pleniglacial in northwestern and Central Europe”, European Palaeo Environments, Climate and Circulation (EPECC), 5th Framework Programme for Research (FP), European Union (EU)

Honours and Memberships

• 2004 Christoffel Plantin Prize, Fund Christoffel Plantin, Schoten, Belgium
• since 2003 Member, German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Germany
• 1994 André Dumont Medal, Geologica Belgica, Brussels, Belgium