After completing his higher education at HBS in Bloemendaal, he attended Delft University of Technology to study civil engineering, where he graduated with a distinction in 1917.

The findings of the commission's report in 1926 marked the first significant milestone in Thijsse's career, leading to his appointment as an Officer in the Order of Orange-Nassau in 1927.

[7][8] Thijsse's role on the Zuiderzee State Commission introduced him to hydrodynamic model research, an innovative approach to understanding the dynamics of water.

The impetus for the formation of the laboratory began in the 1920s, and lay in the design of the sluices for the Afsluitdijk, a significant project requiring extensive research and experimentation.

The task was initially assigned to Professor Rehbock at the Flussbaulaboratorium (river construction laboratory) at the Technical University of Karlsruhe, a major institute in the field of hydraulic engineering research at the time.

[9] This report was subject to review by Thijsse, who advised the Dutch authorities on the need for additional research of this type, not just for the Zuiderzee Works, but also for other projects across the Netherlands.

Thijsse spearheaded the initial research at the newly-formed laboratory and documented the findings in a follow-up report to Rehbock's original study.

Through this work, he made significant contributions to the study of a variety of hydraulic engineering issues, including tides, storm surges, waves, sediment transport, as well as river and coastal morphodynamics.

[14] In 1938, Thijsse received an additional appointment as a professor in theoretical and experimental hydraulics at Delft, succeeding Gerard Henri de Vries Broekman.

[16][17] After his involvement at Walcheren, Thijsse was portrayed as the character van der Molen in the non-fiction novel Het verjaagde water by A. den Doolaard.