"A broad vision of the environment is needed to more effectively prevent and control health risks at the human-animal interface."

Research focus: One Health and Environmental Epidemiology

Prof. Dr. Lidwien Smit is Full Professor of One Health and Environmental Epidemiology at Utrecht University and leads the One Health Microbial group within the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences.

Her work centers on respiratory and molecular epidemiology, with a particular focus on how environmental and occupational exposures shape human health. Using an interdisciplinary One Health approach, she investigates public health risks at the human-animal-environmental interface.

As principal investigator, Lidwien leads a long-running, large-scale research program on agricultural emissions and their implications for respiratory health, antimicrobial resistance, and infectious diseases among people living in livestock-dense regions. She also leads the CLAIRE: Clean Air for Everyone project, a multidisciplinary project evaluating the effectiveness of ventilation and air-cleaning technologies in improving indoor air quality and reducing airborne transmission of respiratory pathogens.

In addition to her research and teaching roles, she serves as Theme Leader for One Health at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine and as a Scientific Director and Executive Board member of the Netherlands Center for One Health (NCOH). She is chair of the ZonMw VENI grant Committee, scientific advisory committee member for the Netherlands Lung Foundation, and a member of the Health Council of the Netherlands and the Dutch Expert Committee on Occupational Safety.

Lidwien obtained her MSc (with highest honors) in Environmental Sciences from Wageningen University, completed her PhD in Epidemiology at Utrecht University, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) in Paris. She has authored more than 150 scientific publications.