Ing. Peter de Vries (1964) graduated from Rijkshogeschool IJselland in Deventer in 1996. In 1996 he started working at the NIOO Centre for Estuarine and Marine Ecology in Yerseke. At this institute he assisted in the study of the settlement of Cerastoderma edule and the role of substrate dynamics on a tidal sandbank in the Westerschelde. In 1998 he started working as an assistant in a study dealing with the response of phytoplankton to changes in the coastal environment. This research was conducted in co-operation with RIKZ (part of Ministry of Water works and Public transportation) and used the mesocosms at Jacobahaven. In 2003, he joined the department of Plant Animal Interactions and he now works as an assistant at various projects.