Nadia Bloemendaal

AS Atmospheric Sciences

The 2024 Arne Richter Award for Outstanding Early Career Scientists is awarded to Nadia Bloemendaal for her outstanding contribution to research in atmospheric science with a focus on tropical cyclones and extreme weather.

Nadia Bloemendaal is an Assistant Professor in tropical cyclones and extreme weather at VU Amsterdam and a researcher at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute (KNMI). As an early career scientist, she has made an outstanding contribution to the field of tropical cyclones modelling and risk assessment. She made several ground-breaking contributions, including developing of a model for generating synthetic tropical cyclones; improving our understanding of the influence of model resolution on tropical cyclone surge simulation; improving estimates of tropical cyclone frequency and wind speeds; and developing a new tropical cyclone severity scale, which takes into account wind speed, precipitation, and surge height.

The impact of Bloemendaal’s science is high. She has already published a significant number of impactful papers and contributed to important reports for the European Union and World Meteorological Organization. She received second place in the Lloyd’s Science of Risk Prize in 2021 and also makes strong societal impact; since her PhD she has been working on a project related to tropical cyclones and insurance at Columbia University. Bloemendaal is a true advocate for ‘FAIR’ data. Her datasets and model code are publicly available, and she received the national Dutch Data Prize in 2020.

In summary, Nadia Bloemendaal is an inspirational scientist, truly motivated by weather and climate dynamics, who uses her drive and enthusiasm to inspire others.