About Wout Bakker

Wout Bakker first came in contact with Deltares in 2014 during his internship which was part of his master studies Solid Fluid Mechanics at the Mechanical Engineering faculty of Delft University of Technology (TUD). He studied the wave-induced motion of submerged flexible vegetation in an experimental investigation conducted in the wave flume of the Hydraulic Engineering Laboratory at the CiTG faculty of TUD. His MSc graduation project on the influence of free-surface turbulence on scum-layer formation of cyanobacteria was in close collaboration with a number of Deltares experts. During this project he got familiar with doing experimental research in physical scale models and was introduced to the optical measurement technique Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). After finishing his studies at TUD in 2016 Wout worked at Deltares on a freelance basis, experimenting with the application of LEDs as illumination source for PIV measurements.

In 2017 he took half a year off for a motortrip starting in Nepal and finishing in his hometown in the Netherlands. In 2018 he worked as a freelancer for Deltares and TUD, continuing the development of high-power pulsed LEDs as an alternative to laser-based PIV. In March 2019 he started working at Deltares at the Experimantal Facility Support department, mostly involved with the development and application of (optical) measurement techniques in the scale-model projects performed in the Deltares facilities.

He worked in numerous projects combining his analytical and technical skills, without losing track of having fun and being an enjoyable colleague to work with. Together with the fellow measurement and monitoring community he tries to keep the measurment techniques that are applied at the Deltares facilities up-to-date.

Wout works as a host in two nature reserves (Engelsmanplaat and Boschplaat on the island Terschelling) on a volunteering basis also and coordinates a large group of volunteers working for Staatsbosbeheer.