Linda Nol

Position: Earth & Water team leader, Head of Practice-based Learning
Professorship: Resilient Plants, Healthy Surface Water, Sustainable Soil Management
Email: l.nol@aeres.nl
Social media: LinkedIn

Linda Nol was born and raised and still lives in the Zaanstreek in the Netherlands, which is surrounded by fen meadows and therefore very relevant to the VeenVitaal (Healthy Fens) project. She studied Physical Geography at Amsterdam University and obtained her doctorate at Wageningen UR with her thesis ‘Uncertainty assessment of N2O inventories: explorations at different spatial and temporal scales for the Dutch fen meadow landscape’. For her graduation thesis, she carried out many tests in the fen meadows, did analysis on, among other things, land use and the nitrogen cycle, and went to businesses to chart the surface water in ditches.

She started working for Aeres University of Applied Sciences in 2009. At present, she is the team leader of the Earth & Water team, which works for the Earth & Climate programme and the Aquatic Ecosystem Analysis international programme. She is also the Almere faculty’s head of Practice-based Learning and it is her mission to let students work in authentic professional situations as much as possible, for example through internships and field work.

In the VeenVitaal project, she is the curriculum leader of WP6, which is about the use of knowledge by farmers, managers, governments and concerned citizens. Her work involves applying knowledge to various target groups. Aeres provides both agricultural programmes and more nature-oriented programmes. In addition, Aeres provides short courses to farmers and stays in touch with farmers and managers. Because of this, it finds itself in a unique position. Through education, students are provided with current knowledge on the results of the curricula 1 to 5. Students can also develop scholastic products or communication tools for other target groups. In addition, Linda connects colleagues and students to other curricula, for example, in the field of aquatic ecology, soil capacity and farmland birds.

With a company called Floating Future BV and other departments of Aeres, she is working on a floating food island that is moored in the Weerwater in Almere. With this project and the work of students, she aims to answer all sorts of questions, such as: What is water quality? What are optimal circumstances for growth? Which countries and cities provide much potential for floating food islands? Which crops are best cultivated on the floating food island? Many pupils and students are already involved through challenges and internships.

Last but not least, Linda is involved in the Mimicking Trichomes project. Not that she knows much about crop protection, but she carries out its organisational and management tasks.