"The Centre focuses on signalling, risk assessment and intervention of pathogenic micro-organisms that can be transmitted from animals, food or the environment to humans. We therefore work at the cutting edge of human and non-human (veterinary, agricultural, environmental) domains, focused on subjects that are relevant to inspection, policy and society.”

In 1989, after studying Animal Sciences at Wageningen UR (University & Research centre), Arjen van de Giessen started working at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM).

He was project leader of bacterial zoonoses and antimicrobial resistance at the predecessors of the Centre for Zoonoses and Environmental Microbiology (Centrum Zoönosen en Omgevingsmicrobiologie – Z&O) until 2010. In 1996 he received his PhD from the Utrecht University, supporting the dissertation ‘Epidemiology and control of Salmonella enteritidis and Campylobacter spp. in poultry flocks’. In 2010 Arjen van de Giessen became head of the department of Animal & Vector.

Since March 2015, Arjen van de Giessen is Head of the Centre for Zoonoses and Environmental Microbiology. The Centre has a broad scope of in-house expertise, both on the ‘wet’ side, i.e. lab research, as on the ‘dry’ side, such as modelling, risk assessment and molecular epidemiology, and covers the fields of zoonoses, food safety and environmental microbiology. With his co-workers, Arjen van de Giessen works on cross-domain research (One Health), in collaboration with knowledge partners from the various human and non-human domains.

Areas of expertise

• Bacterial zoonoses
• Antimicrobial resistance
• Foodborne infections
• Livestock farming

Contactinformatie

E-mail: info@rivm.nl