Tycho Huussen

On Substack I write about what's on my mind. I try to stick to topics that are in some way related to my work as a consultant and teacher. Expect things like: climate physics, systemic change, cultural change, interdisciplinary cooperation etc.

Policy and business strategy for a livable planet. Specialties: geological net zero, carbon policy, marine cloud brightening, sustainable culture, ecological design

At an International School close to where we live I teach IGCSE & IB physics. I enjoy empowering young people with knowledge and understanding, and help them acquire deeper insights and problem solving skills.

As a Technical Lead at Blue Cooling Initiative, lead the development of Marine Cloud Brightening (MCB) from offshore wind installations, in collaboration with local communities, sponsors, governments, universities and industry stakeholders.

I am part of a group of citizens who appreciate the natural beauty of the southwestern Algarve, acknowledge its ecological value and would like to see it protected, both legally and in practice. We engage with the local community and the local government as watchdogs, educators, and advisors.

I mentored and coached my A-level physics students with their Earth Prize (https://www.theearthprize.org/) proposal addressing the water shortages in Portugal due to climate change. The name of the project is AquaSense with the mission: “to contribute to a world where every drop counts, fostering resilience and well-being for generations to come."

Following a long held dream I designed and constructed a carbon negative, solar powered house for our family on some forested land in the southwestern Algarve. I used local timber and already dead trees and rocks that were present at the land and reused materials, such as doors, windows and even insulation material. I also built a grey water system and a rainwater collection and retention system. Agroforestry is currently in progress with small fruit trees in the ground and melioration of the soil.

In 2018 it turned out Portugal had offered concessions to international oil companies for deep-sea drilling off-shore and for hydraulic fracking on-shore. When this came out a large group of residents voiced their opposition and got organized. I helped organize various manifestations and participated in debated with local municipalities. I also wrote a letter to a local news outlet explaining my reasons to oppose the drilling (see below). Eventually the oil companies abandoned their exploration plans and th

Before I became a father I worked for about a year and a half at a pedagogical project for troubled teenagers from Holland and Germany. Most of the youngsters at the project had endured psychological trauma in their early years and posed very challenging behavior, including delinquent and aggressive behavior. In this position I learned to maintain a functional relationship under challenging circumstances.

San Diego's craft beer and in particular IPA culture inspired me to create something similar in my hometown Amsterdam. ABC was a gypsy-brewery creating several unique ales with organic malts and lots of hops.

On of the first craft breweries in the Algarve. Flagship beer: "West Coast IPA". Enjoyed doing this because I have a passion for beer and food in general and could combine the distribution with surfing. Folded the business after I met my partner and we started to think about settling and having a family.

Quatro Ventos was a project for sustainable living in southwest Portugal. We did natural building, planted trees and brewed our own IPA :)

Just after I returned to Amsterdam from the USA I registered a charitable foundation in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. The goal of the foundation was to promote more sustainable living and was inspired by ecovillages, in particular Dancing Rabbit in Missouri, USA. Looking back the legal structure was a bit of overkill for a project that ended up being more of a personal exploration. I learned about different forms of sustainable, communal living and attracted a rather large following on Facebook.

After I had moved to southwest Portugal I developed and taught a course on sustainable culture primarily based on Bill Mollison's "Permaculture Designer's Manual".

At Scripps Institution of Oceanography I worked on various projects related to internal waves, both in the deep sea and near the surface pycnocline. We also looked at the role of internal waves in vertical heat transport and in the large scale ocean circulation. These processes are both relevant to the climate as the ocean accounts for the bulk of heat storage and transport. In San Diego I also worked on the planning and design of field observations.

While at Scripps Institution of Oceanography (SIO) I applied for and was awarded ship time to collect finescale oceanographic measurements off Galapagos Islands. In collaboration with the Applied Physics Lab at SIO our team employed a novel setup of multiple wave-powered profilers on free-floating buoys.

While at uni I marveled at the skills of many of the fellow students in the science department. In Amsterdam it is common for students to work side jobs. I reckoned the special skills in problem solving and computer programming that many science students possess could be utilized better. With this idea I got together with two friends, an economist and a fellow physics student. We decided to start a business that would link students to technical, paid projects at companies and nonprofit organizations. Gong

The Indian Ocean branch of the global meridional overturning circulation is an important site of watermass transformation from deep water to intermediate water. In my doctoral thesis I addressed the question whether the ocean mixing needed in this process could be sustained by breaking internal wav

In 2005, before I decided to pursue a PhD in oceanography, I joined a NIOZ/NOC research cruise on RSS Discovery in the Mozambique channel as an intern. We recovered moorings for the LOCO experiment and back at NIOZ I had a look at the internal wave signal in the data.

My thesis was on an optical experiment I built that successfully implemented a classical-wave analogy of Grover's Quantum Search Algorithm.