Jan joined WRL as a Scientia PhD Candidate in late 2020. His research focuses on understanding how river flows and floodplain inundation patterns are influenced by river regulation and future climate change scenarios. His findings directly contribute to improving environmental flow management for the large-scale restoration of the vast 88,000ha Gayini Wetlands on Australia's Lower Murrumbidgee River, one of the country’s most ambitious freshwater ecosystem restoration initiatives.

He holds a BSc in Ecosystem Management from the University of Göttingen, an Erasmus Mundus Joint MSc in Water Science & Engineering from UNESCO-IHE Delft, and a professional certificate in forest restoration from Yale University. Before joining UNSW Sydney, Jan carried out environmental research at the Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center, and the University of California at Berkeley. He also evaluated the effectiveness of the EU’s environmental and climate initiatives as a data analyst for the European Commission’s LIFE Environment Programme.

Outside of academia, Jan is an enthusiastic bocce player, widely recognised within WRL for his brilliant throwing technique, which has been proudly named in his honour.

Supervisors

• Professor Richard Kingsford
• Professor William Glamore
• Associate Professor Miri Raven
• Dr Gilad Bino