Health & Environment

Sander van Lanen
I am an urban geographer working on the intersections of economy and culture. My research focuses on the everyday consequences of poverty, concentrated deprivation, and the political economy of everyday life. In other words, how political decisions and economic transformation transform everyday practices like work, mobility and leisure. This includes considerations of work, health, housing, social life and many more.

Extra keywords: Social Inclusion/Exclusion

Michiel Rienstra
Graduated in medicine at the University of Antwerp, Belgium in 2003. Obtained a PhD at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands in 2007 on Atrial Fibrillation, Underlying Disease and Prognosis. I completed my cardiology training at the University Medical Center Groningen in 2012, where continued working as clinical cardiologist and researcher. I was awarded with a NWO Rubicon grant in 2009 and went to Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital and the Framingham Heart Study for a post-doc on population genetics and epidemiology in 2010-2011. In 2012 I was awarded with the NWO Veni grant for his project on genetics of atrial fibrillation. In 2015 I received the European Society of Cardiology academic grant for his project on a big data approach in atrial fibrillation. I am work package leader of 4 large national consortia; RACE V (hypercoagulability and AF progression), RED-CVD (early detection of cardiovascular disease in general practices), AI (catalyzing the application of artificial intelligence in CV disease), and MyDigiTwin (Big-data and Artificial Intelligence-based ecosystem to create a user’s personal “Digital Twin”). I am steering committee member of several investigator-initiated clinical studies (RACE 2 to 7, MARC 1-2, VIP-HF, DECISION). I am fellow of the European Society of Cardiology and the American Heart Association, and Scientific & Clinical Education Lifelong Learning Committee (SCILL) member of the AHA - Genomics and Precision Medicine council.

Marlies Hesselman
Marlies Hesselman is a lecturer in international law and a member of Global Health Law Groningen at the Faculty of Law. She is particularly interested in international law at the intersections of human rights, environment and health with a focus on the health impacts of climate change, disasters, energy poverty and air pollution. Marlies PhD specifically touches upon human rights and modern access to energy services.

Marjon de Vos
Marjon de Vos is Assistant Professor at the Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences (GELIFES) at the Faculty of Science and Engineering. She investigates ecological and evolutionary processes in (infectious) microbial communities. Her research group aims to understand the genotype-phenotype-fitness relationships within (evolving) microbial communities, and aims to elucidate the ecological drivers of evolution. We study these eco-evolutionary processes in the 'Evolutionary Medicine' realm, using molecular biological tools, by performing phenotypic and growth measurements, and modeling. By unveiling the fundamental ecological and evolutionary microbial processes in infectious disease, we hope to improve and contribute to strategies that can alleviate infectious diseases and limit the spread of antibiotic resistance.

Merit Hondelink
Merit Hondelink is a trained archaeobotanist and historian. She is a PhD-candidate working on her NWO-funded research titled: A taste of historic cookery: a reconstruction of the daily meal as prepared by common burghers of Early Modern Dutch cities, AD 1500-1850. The main aim of her research, supervised by René Cappers (Groningen University) and Bruno Blondé (University of Antwerp), is to expand our knowledge of the past food and alimentary practices of the common Dutch burgher. The central question that will be addressed in her research is: what did common burghers of Early Modern Dutch cities eat, how did they prepare their daily meal and how did these food and alimentary practices change through time? In order to contribute to the development of a better understanding of this topic, Merit adopts a multidisciplinary approach and compares and integrates the information obtained from bio-archaeological, historical and gastronomic (experimental cooking) research.

Allard Hans Roest
Allard Hans Roest is a researcher and project leader at the professorship of Spatial Transformations – Water of the Hanze University of Applied Sciences. Allard’s practice-oriented research projects focusses on quantifying the effects of extreme weather (e.g. heat, pluvial floodings) on urban spaces and societies and how stakeholders can collaborate to deal with the effects of extreme weather in urban environments. In addition to his position at the Hanze, he is working on a PhD dissertation at the Faculty of Spatial Sciences of the University of Groningen where he focusses on where, how and with whom we can adapt to a changing climate. With this research, Allard hopes to accelerate adaptation efforts in urban environments and safeguard the liveability in cities.

Valentina Gallo
Valentina Gallo is a Rosalind Franklin Fellow and Associate Professor in Epidemiology and Sustainable Health at Campus Fryslân, University of Groningen where she is Head of the Department of Sustainable Health. She trained in Medicine and Surgery first and Clinical Neurology after, at University of Rome La Sapienza (Italy). Valentina then gained an MSc in Demography and Health at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) in 2004, and a PhD in Clinical and Experimental Neurology at the University of Rome La Sapienza in 2010. Valentina moved in 2006 to London (United Kingdom) to start her academic career at Imperial College London (ICL), the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine , and Queen Mary University of London. Valentina was awarded several research grants, including the HEADING and the BRAIN studies by the Drake Foundation as a co-Principal Investigator. In total, she obtained the equivalent of £1.3M research funds. Valentina’s research basic is focused on the epidemiology of neurological disease, molecular and environmental epidemiology; she is alo engaged in inter- and transdiscipliniary research on global and sustainable public health and climate change adaptation. In 2015 and 2018, Valentina was appointed as Visiting Professor at the University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli in Naples (Italy) by Prof Paolo Chiodini.