Tjalling Leenstra is head of the National Coordination Centre for Communicable Disease Control (LCI) at the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and scientific secretary of the Outbreak Management Team (OMT).
I’m working with the other experts at the LCI to make the centre even better and more flexible. Together with the Municipal Public Health Services, we’ll be ready to face any future infectious disease outbreaks, no matter how big or small
After qualifying as a doctor, Tjalling Leenstra (1975) obtained a PhD from the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Amsterdam before joining Brown University’s International Health Institute (US) as a postdoctoral researcher. In 2009, he was entered into the register of medical-biological scientific researchers in epidemiology. In June 2019, he completed his specialist training as a public health physician.
From 2012, Tjalling worked for RIVM’s Centre for Infectious Diseases, Epidemiology and Surveillance, serving, among other things, as the head of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Antimicrobial Resistance, Epidemiology and Surveillance. Between 2019 and 2022, he worked as a public health physician for the Amsterdam Municipal Public Health Service’s General Infectious Diseases team.
Following his appointment as head of the LCI in June 2022, Tjalling is responsible for the centre’s strategic course. He also has a substantive medical role as regards infectious disease control. In addition, Tjalling serves as head of the crisis organisation in his capacity as secretary of the Outbreak Management Team (OMT).
Expertise
- Infectious disease control
- Infectious disease epidemiology
- Antimicrobial resistance