- 1 May 2019: - My OSINT analysis about the 27 March Indian ASAT test destroying Microsat-R has appeared in The Diplomat.
- 8 April 2019: - Our paper on the Diepenveen meteorite (a large paper with me as primary author and 24 co-authors from 17 different international institutions) has been accepted for publication by the scientific journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science.
I am a multidisciplinary scientist and science educator. My research topics include Palaeolithic archaeology, meteorites, asteroids and military space ("spy satelites").
About me: - I am a Dutch archaeologist (PhD, Leiden University 2003) with a research focus on the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic, and a secondary interest in megaliths. I am involved in research in multiple fields of science, including asteroids (of which I discovered several) and meteorites. I track classified military satellites ("spy satellites"), analyse their behaviour, and blog about that on my SatTrackCam blog.
I have worked as an academic researcher (archaeology, meteoritics and space) at Leiden University, the VU University Amsterdam, and Naturalis Biodiversity Center (the Dutch National Museum of Natural History). In 2007, I received a VENI grant from the Dutch National Science Foundation (NWO) to study spatial behaviour and cognition of Neandertals.
I am currently working for the municipal heritage organization Erfgoed Leiden, and an external consultant on Space Situational Awareness issues to the Space Security Center of the Royal Dutch Air Force. For Naturalis Biodiversity Center (the former Dutch National Museum of Natural History), I am researching the Dutch meteorites Diepenveen and Broek in Waterland.
