Tonie Marie van Dam (born April 19, 1960) is an American geophysicist and geodesist, known for her pioneering research on solid Earth deformations due to loads from atmospheric and hydrologic pressures.
She and her collaborators used space geodetic observations and modeling for increased precision in measuring and understanding such loads.
Her Ph.D. thesis Atmospheric Load Response of the Solid Earth and Oceans[2] was supervised by John M.
[4][5][6][7][8][9][10] Her 2001 article Crustal displacements due to continental water loading (written with six collaborators, including John M. Wahr, Geoffrey Blewitt, and Kristine M. Larson)[11] is considered a classic in geodesy.
[1][3][12] Van Dam has served the community of geophysicists and geodesist in several capacities and since 2019 is a member of the board of directors of UNAVCO.