The IM4CA project is proud to announce that our colleague Ilse Aben has been awarded the prestigious Stevin Prize by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). The Stevin Prize is the highest distinction in the Netherlands for scientific achievements with major societal impact and includes a research grant of 1.5 million euros.
Ilse receives this honour for her outstanding contributions to society through the Dutch satellite instrument TROPOMI. At SRON, she leads the TROPOMI team, which publishes a weekly global map of major methane leaks (as part of a Copernicus Atmospheric Monitoring Service)—leaks that collectively have a climate impact twice as large as the total greenhouse gas emissions of The Netherlands. Their data is used by organisations such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the European Union to identify and address methane leaks.
She recently presented her award-winning work at VU Amsterdam in a seminar entitled “Using satellites to reduce methane emissions in support of climate action.”
Within the IM4CA project, Ilse—together with colleagues from SRON—contributes to WP1 “Anthropogenic emissions” through the task Local emission quantification using satellites, and to WP4 “EU emission trends”, focusing on CH₄ flux inversions over Europe including satellite observations of point-source emitters.
We congratulate Ilse on this exceptional achievement and are honoured to work alongside her.