Published on 17 January 2018

Delfland Master Thesis Award for Emiel van Druten

On Tuesday 16 January, the Delfland Master Thesis Award for 2018 was awarded in the city of Delft. This year’s winner was Emiel van Druten, for his thesis entitled ‘Pumping Stations for the Future’.

It was the third time that the Delfland Water Authority awarded this prize, and this year they were able to choose from 11 high-quality entries. The judges thought that the thesis by Emiel van Druten wrote, a student of Delft University of Technology, was the best. His work, entitled Pumping Stations for the Future, concerns the sustainable renovation of the Vissering pumping station. Both Emiel’s subject and the way he has elaborated it are highly relevant to the issues and challenges that water authorities work on. 

According to the judges, Emiel has succeeded in developing a model that water authorities can use for future pumping station renovations, thus addressing the future uncertainty related to climate change and energy transition. His measure to realise the pumping station’s energy supply through a combination of wind and solar energy and to optimise the water level management accordingly is very much in line with the water authorities’ ambition to become energy neutral.

The Netherlands is a country known for its water management expertise. To maintain this reputation, we need to always get plenty of young people interested in the subject of water management. The Delfland Water Authority contributes to this by involving secondary school pupils and university students in various ways and by getting them excited about this topic. The Delfland Master Thesis Award is one way of doing this.

During the award ceremony, Emiel presented his thesis to the invitees in a video, after which Secretary-Director Pieter Janssen handed him a cheque worth EUR 2,000. Emiel: ‘It is great that my research is appreciated in this way. In my current job at Witteveen+Bos I try to put my findings into practice wherever I can.’

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