Hoe besmettelijk is obesitas?

Ilja C.W. Arts is Professor of Molecular Epidemiology of Chronic Diseases at Maastricht University, Scientific Director of the Maastricht Centre for Systems Biology (MaCSBio), and Principal Investigator at CARIM (Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht). She focuses on the integration of omics and complex phenotypic data from epidemiological studies using systems biology approaches in the fields of cardiovascular and metabolic disease. She obtained a PhD in Human Nutrition (Wageningen, 2001), a MSc in Epidemiology (Rotterdam, 2000), and a MSc in Human Nutrition and Health (Cum Laude; Wageningen 1994). In 2004 she received a VENI Talent Scheme Grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). Prof. Arts has received more than € 4 million of competitive funding from national and international organizations as principal investigator, applicant or co-applicant. She has a strong publication history: 74 WI1 publications and a h-index Web of Science of 30.

Jo Goossens is a strategic thinker with 27 years of experience in the agri-food industry. His expertise covers the transformation chain from agricultural raw material to industrial food production but he is especially fascinated by the major societal issues surrounding nutrition and health and the role of agricultural production.
With a PhD in Biology and a long industrial career in various global R&D, marketing and business management positions at Cerestar, he combines scientific understanding with strong business skills. Since 2001 he has been consulting independently through his organisation Bio-Sense and working in partnership with Giract, the leading ingredient strategy consultancy and ShiftN, the innovative systems thinking and futures consultancy.
Jo is particularly interested in creative processes that help to understand the underlying patterns and forces shaping markets and societies. Convinced that today’s challenges require novel approaches he co-initiated and managed ground breaking projects such as the Nutrition & Health 2020 and 2025 Fields for Food and Fuel collaborative scenario planning and the Nutrition & Health Open Innovation Lab. He contributed also as a partner in large EU-projects such as GoodFood and Food4Me.

Since 1979 Prof. Dr. Dirk Avonts has been a family doctor in a group practice in the city of Antwerp, and he is involved in the out of hours medical service of family doctors. Dirk Avonts is also Professor of Family Medicine and Primary Health Care at the University of Ghent (UGent).
In his research activities, he focuses on the issue of chronic care for patients with multimorbidity: developing clinical guidelines, communication between care levels, use of the electronic medical record, patient participation and health system research. He also organises international courses in research methods in primary care: Krakow (Poland), Dusseldorf (Germany), Antwerp (Belgium), and in Maastricht and Amsterdam (Netherlands). In 2009 Dirk Avonts became President of an interuniversity committee concerning the master degree in Family Medicine in Flanders.
Since 2010 Dirk Avonts is involved in different missions of the WHO to integrate vertical health programs in primary health care. He is also member of the social council (OCMW-raad) of the city of Antwerp and an interim-member of the city-council of Antwerp.
He is the author of several articles, among which ‘Ramadan fasting and diabetes: An observational study among Turkish migrants in Belgium’, in: B. Peeters et al. (2012), Prim. Care Diab. doi:10.1016/j.pcd.2012.02.003.

Geerdt Magiels is a biologist and philosopher of science. This background and a wide experience in different fields of science and society has enabled him to explore and write about a broad range of subjects, from medicine to healthcare, from art to science, from brain physiology to culinary topics. His published works include Paul Janssen, Pioneer in Pharma and in China (on Dr Paul Janssen, the founder of Janssen Pharmaceutica) and Freud en Darwin op de sofa (comparing the scientific merits of the work and methods of Freud and Darwin). He is the co-author of Chemie tussen gisteren en morgen (the history of BASF in Antwerp, Belgium), Dichtbij en toch veraf (a survival handbook for families of patients with psychiatric illness), Het geheim van de hersenchip (a self-help guide for patients with psychosis, translated into 16 languages), Over mijn lijf (on the rights of patients and their families) and Alles of niets (a self-help guide for patients with bipolar disorder). His doctoral thesis is published as From sunlight to insight. Jan IngenHousz, the discovery of photosynthesis & science in the light of ecology and most recently he wrote Recycle! Als afval grondstof wordt.