My research

As a policy fellow at the RIVM, I have a broad interest in policy problems related to health and sustainability. Basically anything that has to do with health and the environment, focused on policies, notably prevention policies. This includes topics such as healthy ageing, the obesity epidemic, food policies, the protein transition, and the energy transition. I’m also interested in modelling human behaviour and the interaction between behaviour and policies. This has to do with the unwanted side effects of policies through unforeseen human behaviour. On top of that, there is the behaviour of other stakeholders. This relates to commercial determinants of health projects.

As a researcher, I am currently involved in various projects that aim to:

• Model lifestyle (e.g. smoking, BMI, Physical activity) and health (incidence of disease and death);
• Model burnout in health care professionals and the complexity of meaningful interventions;
• Model human behaviour concerning the use, reuse and discard of heatpumps;
• Model depression and its feedback on behaviour;
• Model the social environment and protein consumption;
• Asses the (economic) externalities on health and the environment of foods;
• Asses the health risk and benefits of foods.

IAS Fellowship

During my fellowship at IAS, I intend to find out where the interests and expertise between IAS and RIVM overlap. During this time, I will be developing new projects dealing with complex societal problems. For example, I will observe the effect an ageing population has on the health care system. I hope my time at IAS will inspire to develop new ideas that may lead to cooperation in research projects.