Johan Feenstra Retiring as Secretary of WIMEK

Dear WIMEK researchers,

After serving as secretary of WIMEK for more than 30 years, I am going to say goodbye to the WIMEK Graduate School due to retirement. I was involved in the establishment and start of WIMEK in 1993, together with Professor Leen Hordijk and have worked closely together with several other WIMEK directors and WIMEK team members since that time.
I am proud of the important contribution WIMEK researchers have made to the scientific analysis of causes and consequences of environmental and climate problems and their contributions to possible solutions. I am also proud of the educational and training opportunities that WIMEK and WGS have developed for our PhD candidates.
When WIMEK started in 1993, PhD candidates had no training and supervision plan and there were hardly any PhD courses. They simply did research under the supervision of a supervisor. Over the past 30 years, the education and training path of doctoral students has been improved tremendously.

In my opinion, however, much work remains to be done. Despite the overwhelming number of high-profile scientific articles and reports that warned of the unacceptable consequences of the climate, biodiversity and food crises, policy makers and government organizations have still not taken serious action to stop human-caused damage to our earth.
In my view, this means that rethinking our role as scientists in society is necessary. How can we increase our influence on policy to accelerate the societal transitions that are needed in the short term.
I hope I have contributed a bit to reach this goal and that you are willing to take action to contribute to it too, because there is no planet B.

I would like to thank the WIMEK team members, the WIMEK directors, WIMEK PhD students and WIMEK board members for the very pleasant cooperation over the past 30 years and I wish you good luck with your contributions to scientific research and societal impact for a sustainable world.

Johan Feenstra, secretary WIMEK