User:20Sic semper tyrannis/Marion Koopmans



Maria Petronella Gerarda "Marion" Koopmans (born Steyl, September 21, 1956) is a Dutch professor of virology. She is internationally recognized as an authority in the field of virus propagation research.

Biography
Koopmans studied veterinary medicine and obtained her doctorate in 1990 from the University of Utrecht. In 2007, she was appointed as endowed professor of virology at Erasmus University Rotterdam. On March 8, 2007 she delivered her inaugural speech.

She has been head of the Virus Sciences department at Erasmus University since 2013. From 2001 to 2014 she was head of the infectious diseases laboratory of the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). In 2006 she became a board member of the Center for Infectious Disease Control. Since 2014, Koopmans has advised the World Health Organization on the fight against new infectious diseases.

Koopmans specializes in food viruses, the spread of viruses between animals and their transmission from animals to humans. She is also specialized in noroviruses. She was instrumental in curbing the spread of the Ebola virus in 2014 in Sierra Leone and Liberia with the deployment of mobile laboratories. In July 2017, her work was honored with an honorary doctorate from the Technical University of Denmark. In 2018, Koopmans was awarded the Stevin Prize from NWO.

Koopmans has published approximately 300 articles in scientific journals. Over the years she has obtained financial support for research work and is an advisor to many national and international health organizations such as the Dutch Health Council and the WHO. Koopmans has been a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences since 2019.

During the corona crisis in the Netherlands in 2020, she participated as a member of the Outbreak Management Team that advises the Third Rutte Cabinet on measures to combat the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 that causes the contagious respiratory disease COVID-19. As of March 17, 2020, she is also advising the European Commission on COVID-19.