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Quirine ten Bosch appointed new professor Infectious Disease Epidemiology

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September 6, 2024

The board of Wageningen University & Research has appointed Prof. Dr. Quirine ten Bosch as professor of Infectious Disease Epidemiology (IDE). She will succeed Mart de Jong, who will retire. Ten Bosch’ appointment will be effective from September 2024.

Infectious diseases continue to have a huge impact on human and animal health. Controlling them is a multifaceted challenge. Only by working together, it is possible to tackle these emerging threats effectively. According to Ten Bosch, epidemiological modelling plays an important role in bringing together knowledge and data to develop effective response strategies. She looks forward to contribute to a better embedding of modelling in decision-making around outbreaks.

The chair group Infectious Disease Epidemiology (IDE) is the successor of Quantitative Veterinary Epidemiology (QVE). The group focuses on the control of infectious diseases in populations of livestock, wildlife, and humans.

Quirine ten Bosch

Quirine ten Bosch (1985) received her bachelor's degree from the University of Groningen and her master's degree in Epidemiology from Utrecht University. For her PhD, Ten Bosch left for the University of Notre Dame, USA, where she worked on new strategies to control dengue fever. She then worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris on outbreak response, including from a major outbreaks of plague in Madagascar and chikungunya in Bangladesh.

Ten Bosch has been working for Wageningen University & Research since 2019. The new professor has done notable research with societal impact, such as the SamenSlimOpen project. Together with others, Ten Bosch investigated the effectiveness of measures to limit the spread of the coronavirus in public indoor spaces.

Sought-after expert

Ten Bosch provided input during the covid-19 pandemic to, for example, the RIVM (the Dutch National Institute of Public Health and the Environment) and the Dutch Ministry of Health on testing strategies and the nature and extent of outbreaks in long-term care facilities. Partly for this reason, Ten Bosch was a sought-after expert during the corona pandemic, and she has commented on the effectiveness of various measures in media appearances in The Netherlands. Besides her work at WUR, Ten Bosch is editor of several journals and is a member of the animal disease expert team, which advises the government on animal disease control.