Rate My Professor Appy Sluijs

Prof. dr. Appy Sluijs is Professor of Paleoceanography at the Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, and chair of the research group Marine Palynology and Paleoceanography. He obtained his MSc in Biology from Utrecht University in 2003, with a thesis on the Eocene/Oligocene transition of ODP Leg 189 sites, and his PhD cum laude in 2006 from the same institution on global change during the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum, supervised by Prof. Dr. A.F. Lotter and Dr. H. Brinkhuis. Following his doctorate, Sluijs held postdoctoral positions at Utrecht University from 2006 to 2009, funded by a Veni grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). He progressed to assistant professor roles first in the Department of Biology, Faculty of Science (2009–2011), and then in the Department of Earth Sciences, Faculty of Geosciences (2012–2014), becoming full professor in 2014.

His research centers on climate and ecological change in the geological past, reconstructing temperature, marine ecology, hydrology, biogeochemical cycles, and sea level during periods of rapidly increasing or high atmospheric CO₂ concentrations. Sluijs combines micropaleontological and geochemical techniques to study seafloor sediments obtained through the International Ocean Discovery Program, with a focus on dinoflagellates to develop proxies for ocean acidification and marine carbon cycling. He has authored numerous publications, including 'Widespread terrestrial ecosystem disruption at the onset of the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum' (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2026), 'Organic-walled dinoflagellate cysts in biostratigraphy: state of the art and perspectives for future research' (Newsletters on Stratigraphy, 2026), and 'Reviews and syntheses: Best practices for the application of marine GDGTs as proxy for paleotemperatures' (Biogeosciences, 2025). Sluijs has received prestigious awards such as the James B. Macelwane Medal from the American Geophysical Union (2016), ERC Starting Grant (2010) and Consolidator Grant (2017), Heineken Young Scientists Award for Environmental Sciences (2010), Vening-Meinesz Award (2010), Royal Academy Ammodo Award (2017), and election to the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2023). He serves as editor for the journal Climate of the Past and delivered his inaugural lecture in 2015.