Leon Hermans is an assistant professor in policy analysis. He has been in this position since 2006. From 2003 to 2006 Leon worked as an associate professional officer at the Water Management and Development unit of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Rome, Italy. Leon obtained his PhD degree in policy analysis from TU Delft with a thesis entitled “Actor analysis for Water Resources Management” in 2005.

Leon’s research and teaching are about methods that support informed decision-making on complex problems in multi-actor systems. How to combine analytic rigour with policy relevance and meaningful interaction among actors? Policy evaluation is a core area of attention, focusing on collaborative learning about the impacts of policy decisions as a key mechanism in society to remain adaptive in the face of uncertainty and ongoing change. Applications are mainly in the water domain – broadly defined to include water resources management, flood management and water and sanitation. Teaching includes bachelor and master level courses on methods for problem structuring and actor analysis. Recent research projects focused in policy games and learning for water management in the Netherlands and in countries in Asia and Africa.