Brief history of Meteorology at Wageningen University

Speaker: Henk de Bruin (senior researcher KNMI 1970-1985; associate professor emeritus at MAQ, 1986- 2007)

By the end of the 19th century the Dutch government recognized the need for higher agricultural education and research in The Netherlands. In 1876 the State took over the local council's Agricultural College in Wageningen. It was the start of National Agricultural Education. In 1904 Wageningen education was upgrades to a higher level through the establishment of the National Higher College of Agriculture, Horticulture and Forestry. In 1905 Dr. Dirk van Gulik was appointed as lecturer of Physics and Meteorology at this institution. On 9 March 1918, with the establishment of the Landbouwhogeschool, the National Agricultural College, an upgrade to full academic level took place. Dirk van Gulik became the first full time professor of Physics, Meteorology and Climatology in the Netherlands.

The talk will be devoted to some forgotten publications by van Gulik, with as highlight his work on a novel instrument to measure global radiation (K+). It was the start of the pyranometer of Kipp & Zonen and it resulted in the second longest record of K+ of the world. In addition, his papers on the physics of greenhouse glass will be discussed, revealing that terms such as Greenhouse Effect or Greenhouse Gasses are based on flawed physics. As a sort of entertainment van Gulik’s papers on the Dowsing Twig and his thoughts on dissemination of weather reports by wireless telegraphy will be dealt with. In addition, the history of Meteorology in Wageningen is reviewed for the time after van Gulik until now. The various reorganizations and name chances will be discussed. In 1999 the Meteorology and Air Quality Group (MAQ) was formed.

As expected the research of the group was and is focused on land-atmosphere interactions, including, soil physics and vegetation layer. The textbook by van Wijk (Ed.) Physics of Plant Environment is worthwhile to read. In course of time, interaction between land surfaces and the planetary boundary layer became a core research subject. Moreover, the group participated actively in international field campaigns designed to validate and improve numerical meteorological models. A novel method (scintillometry) was developed to measure turbulent fluxes on km scales. Finally, a review will given of (the history) of the different Master and MSc courses on Meteorology, Climate, Cliamte Change, Atmospheric Chemistry etc. of the Wageningen University.

See https://www.wur.nl/en/Research-Results/Chair-groups/Environmental-Sciences/Meteorologyand-Air-Quality-Group/Education/Courses.htm