Pieter van ’t Veer (1957) studied Human Nutrition (Wageningen, 1982) and Epidemiology (Harvard School Public Health, 1982). He obtained his PhD in Nutritional Epidemiology (Maastricht, 1990) and was employed by The Netherlands Cancer Foundation (1982), TNO Nutrition Institute (1984) and Wageningen University (1993). He chaired the Nutrition and Epidemiology group, Division of Human Nutrition and Health (2002 -2015).
His scientific career initially focused on diet and carcinogenesis and gradually shifted to NCDs, biomarkers, exposure assessment, dietary habits and prevention and finally environmental sustainability and food systems. He supervised projects on diet and breast cancer, GI-tract cancers and cardiovascular disease (EURAMIC study), standardization of dietary assessment for pan-EU surveillance (EFCOVAL), harmonizing dietary requirements (EURRECA) and public health (community health centres).
Inspired by the societal challenges in food and health, he now leads research and education on consumer-centred food systems approaches. His ambition is to advance interdisciplinary research at the cutting edge of nutritional health, environmental sustainability and social inclusiveness. His recent work included environmental aspects of the diet in, e.g., the SUSFANS project and the SHARP model. Building on the H2020-projects EuroDISH and RICHFIELDS, he is actively involved in the development of a pan-European research infrastructure, which aims to facilitate interdisciplinary, multi stakeholder research for the pan-European food, nutrition and health research community. In 2015, Wageningen University endowed him with a special chair in Nutrition, Public Health and Sustainability.