Jurjen Anno Battjes (b. February 22, 1939 – ), Professor Emeritus, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands, was elected to Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Engineering of the United States on February 6, 2009, for his international leadership, research, and teaching in coastal engineering and storm protection.
http://www8.nationalacademies.org/onpinews/newsitem.aspx?RecordID=02062009
Jurjen Anno Battjes earned his M.Sc. in civil engineering in 1962 and his doctorate in technical sciences in 1974 from the Delft University of Technology, the Netherlands. His doctor's thesis was entitled Computation of Set-up, Longshore Currents, Run-up and Overtopping due to Wind-generated Waves under the supervision of Johan C. Schönfeld. Prior to joining the Delft University of Technology, Battjes spent part of his career as assistant professor (1962–1966) at the Laboratory of Coastal Engineering at the University of Florida, Gainesville.
Professor Battjes has gained national and international recognition for his significant contributions to coastal engineering. Professor Battjes was appointed to the Royal Dutch Academy of Sciences (KNAW) in 1975. He received the International Coastal Engineering Award (ASCE) in 1990 and the Society for Underwater Technology Oceanography Award in 1999. He had served as Member (1992–2003) and Chairman (2002–2003) of the Scientific Committee Dutch Center for Coastal Research.
Professor Battjes has more than 40 years of experience in teaching, research, and consulting in fluid mechanics, hydraulic engineering, offshore engineering, and coastal engineering, with emphasis on free surface flows and waves. Professor Battjes has inspired many people, including Robert A. Dalrymple, Marcel J.F. Stive, and Johan C. Winterwerp.
On May 13 and 14, 2004, the International Symposium on Coastal Hydrodynamics and Morphodynamics was successfully held at the Delft University of Technology on the occasion of Professor Jurjen Anno Battjes' academic closing address, formally ending a scientific career.
However, Professor Battjes' scientific career did not end with that address. In November 2005, Professor Jurjen Anno Battjes was appointed by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) to the New Orleans Hurricane Protection System External Review Panel, commissioned as part of the federal effort to provide credible answers to the fundamental questions concerning the performance of the hurricane protection system in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina.
Professor Jurjen Anno Battjes has lectured all over the world. Professor Battjes visited Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China, on June 4–9, 2001. During his short visit, Professor Battjes presented two lectures entitled (i) Generation of Seiches in Rotterdam Harbour and (ii) Experiments on Wave Blocking. Professor Battjes presented Coastal Modeling for Flood Defence at the meeting, Flood Risk in a Changing Climate, for the Royal Society of London, U.K., in November 2001. Professor Battjes presented Forced and Free Subharmonic Gravity Waves in the Coastal Zone at the International Symposium on Topical Problems of Nonlinear Wave Physics, Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Science, in September 2003. Professor Battjes presented his keynote lecture entitled Trends in Coastal Engineering Research at the 50th Anniversary of the Japanese Conference on Coastal Engineering, Tokyo, Japan, in November 2003. Professor Battjes had visited Vietnam Water Resources University on January 2–11, 2008, and presented several lectures on Water Wave Mechanics and Hurricane Katrina in the USA. Professor Jurjen Anno Battjes thoroughly deserves this award and has our warmest congratulations for this international recognition of his excellent work in coastal engineering. We wish him continued success.
