Climate Cafe: Climate Change, Planetary Health, and Green Medicine With Gerard van der Steenhoven & Maroeska Rovers

Gerard van der Steenhoven is a special advisor at the ministry of the Interior (and Kingdom Relations) in the Netherlands, and part-time professor at the University of Twente in meteorological and climatological disaster risk reduction. From 2014 until 2023 he served a nine-year term as Director General of the Royal Netherlands’ Meteorological Institute (KNMI). Previously, he was dean of the Faculty of Science and Technology at the University of Twente (2008 – 2013), and president of the Netherlands’ Physical Society (NNV, 2007 – 2013). As KNMI director he initiated a multi-annual investment in the renewal of the observational and IT infrastructure of the institute, leading to the development of a national Early Warning Center. Within Europe he served as chair of the EUMETSAT council (2018 – 2022) and initiated the development of the first European NMHS directors’ strategy (2016). At present his activities focus on supporting various climate initiatives in the Netherlands (such as the national Climate Research Initiative NL (KIN), and the regional Delta Climate Centre (DCC) in Vlissingen), various assessment committees, public lectures and advisory work.

Gerard van der Steenhoven obtained his PhD in experimental physics at the Vrije Universiteit in 1987 and worked as a postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) thereafter. In 1989 he started as a senior researcher at the national research institute Nikhef in Amsterdam.

Prof.dr. Maroeska Rovers is the Scientific Director of the Technical Medical (TechMed) Center at the University of Twente, and a professor of Medical Technology and Innovation at the Radboudumc. She also is the director of Health Innovation Netherlands (HI-NL), and a member of several (inter)national boards, such as the scientific committee of Excite international, the IDEAL collaboration, Health Valley, and the Science and Innovation Panel of the EU IHI program. Furthermore, she is an awarded member of several Scientific Academies, i.e. Academia Europe (AE), Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), Netherlands Academy of Engineering (NAE), and the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW).

She is a passionate researcher with a strong societal impact as her aim is to contribute to the development of effective, affordable, sustainable and valuable innovations. Her research has been characterized as visionary, innovative, international, and highly productive. In her research, she combines methods and discoveries from various disciplines, such as surgery, epidemiology, health technology assessment, biomedical sciences and policy to make beyond state-of-the-art progress, and then translate these insights into practical tools. Her innovative research line receives a lot of media attention on TV, radio and in newspapers. She has also received various prizes and grants for her work, including a VENI and VICI grant and the Radboud Science Award, which enables researchers to process their scientific breakthroughs into teaching materials for primary school.