prof.dr.ir. PJ (Paul) van den Brink
HoogleraarPaul J. Van den Brink is a personal professor at the Aquatic Ecology and Water Quality Management Group of Wageningen University. Paul chairs the Chemical Stress Ecology subgroup, which comprises 18 PhD students, a PostDoc, several MSc students and himself. He supervises and executes international projects assessing the ecological effects of contaminants, such as pesticides and pharmaceuticals, often in a multiple-stressor context that includes their interaction with climate change, drought, nutrients, and salinization. Other research topics include the development of effect models (e.g., individual-based, meta-population models, and ecoinformatics, as well as expert-based AI models), trait-based methods, and tropical ecotoxicology. Since 1995, Paul van den Brink has published over 300 ISI-listed papers (h-index = 67; Scopus), for which he has won three international prizes. He also co-edited five books. Paul coordinated the EU-funded Innovative Training Network ECORISK2050, which studied the effects of global change on the emission, fate, effects, and risks of chemicals in aquatic ecosystems, as well as the NWO project EMERCHE (Effect-directed Monitoring tools to assess Ecological and Human Health Risks of Chemicals of Emerging Concern in the Water Cycle). In 2006, Paul won the LRI-SETAC Innovative Science Award of € 100.000 and the SETAC Capacity Building Award in 2023. He also organised and took part in many international workshops and courses. He is also a past president of SETAC (Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry; www.setac.org) World and Europe and a SETAC Fellow. Currently, he is a member of the Panel on Plant Protection Products and their Residues (PPR) of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).