Rate My Professor Anne Verhoef

Anne Verhoef is Professor of Soil Physics and Micrometeorology and Joint Head of the Department of Geography and Environmental Science at the University of Reading. She earned her PhD in Micrometeorology, with a thesis on the energy balance of shrub vegetation in the Sahel. Throughout her career at the University of Reading since 1999, she has developed expertise in the interactions and feedbacks within the soil-vegetation-atmosphere system, particularly under drivers such as climate change and land management interventions like Nature-based Solutions. Her research spans soil science, micrometeorology, hydrology, plant physiology, ecology, and remote sensing. Professor Verhoef excels in land surface modelling (LSM), conducting experimental campaigns on water, heat, and gas exchanges in soils, and assessing land surface balances for water, energy, and carbon. She employs synergistic approaches combining LSM, field measurements, and remote sensing, and has secured substantial research funding addressing water, food, and energy security amid extreme weather events including floods, droughts, and heatwaves. Her collaborations include the British Geological Survey, UK Centre for Ecology & Hydrology, UK Met Office, and international academic institutions.

Professor Verhoef has significantly influenced the field through leadership roles: co-leading the Hydrology module for the JULES land surface model (2015-2021), serving on the executive board of the International Soil Modelling Consortium (since 2017, leading working groups), co-chairing the GEWEX GLASS panel (since 2020) to advance land surface and hydrological modelling in contexts like IPCC assessments, and membership in the Hydro-JULES International Advisory Panel. Notable publications include "A system to measure surface fluxes of momentum, sensible heat, water vapour and carbon dioxide" (1997), "Pedotransfer functions in Earth system science: Challenges and perspectives" (2017), "Soil hydrology in the Earth system" (2022), and recent contributions such as "Monitoring and modeling the soil-plant system toward understanding soil health" (2025) and "Hydro-pedotransfer functions: a roadmap for future development" (2024).