Mirjam Blokker was born on 3rd of January 1974 in Leiden. After finishing secondary school (College Hageveld, Heemstede), she began her study Applied Physics at Delft University of Technology in September 1992. In 1997, she finished her master thesis in applied optics entitled “optical aperture synthesis” supervised by prof. H.J. Frankena. Hereafter she started working at Lucent Technologies, Bell Labs, in Huizen, first as a system tester and later on she worked as an expert in optical (fiber) transmission. When the internet bubble burst and the telecommunications industry collapsed Mirjam started working with Kiwa Water Research in 2003 where she is working on the field of water distribution. At Kiwa Water Research she developed the demand model SIMDEUM. Since May 2007 she is also working on her PhD on stochastic demands in hydraulic models.