She holds master degrees in civil engineering, philosophy and administrative law. Her current research concentrates on moral and distributive issues in water governance. In 2013, Neelke was awarded a prestigious Veni-grant for outstanding researchers from the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO) for a project on the ethics of flood risk management. She was shortlisted for the Engineer of the Year Award 2014 from the Dutch professional engineering organization (KIVINIRIA) for her work on the interface of ethics and engineering.