Coordinators

Network Coordinator (NC)

The Coordinating Team (CT) is composed by the Network Coordinator, Professor Wolfgang Ahrens (Germany) and 2 Vice Network Coordinators, Dr Jeroen Lakerveld (Netherlands) and Professor Catherine Woods (Ireland).

Dr Wolfgang Ahrens is professor of epidemiological methods at the University of Bremen, deputy director of the Leibniz Institute for Prevention Research and Epidemiology – BIPS and head of the Department Epidemiological Methods and Etiological Research. After his diploma in human biology in 1985 and further training in epidemiology, his research focused on work- and environment-related cancer. In 1995-1998 he established the working group Epidemiology at the Institute for Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology, University Clinic Essen. After his PhD he led the division Epidemiological Methods and Field Work at BIPS (1998-2003). He coordinated the largest pan-European intervention study on diet- and lifestyle-related disorders in children (www.idefics.eu; 2006-2012) and the subsequent cohort study involving these children and their parents (www.ifamilystudy.eu; 2012-2017). He also was member of the DEDIPAC Management Team. Currently he is a member of the Board of Directors of the German National Cohort

Dr Jeroen Lakerveld is an epidemiologist and senior researcher at the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, VUmc Amsterdam. He leads ‘the Upstream Team’, a small but ambitious centre of expertise on environmental determinants of physical activity, dietary behaviours and chronic disease risk in adults. His research interests are in the upstream drivers of lifestyle behaviours and chronic disease risk, in particular how they can be measured, how they interact and how they can be changed. His experience as coordinator of the EC-funded SPOTLIGHT project and as co-coordinator of the JPI-HDHL DEDIPAC Knowledge Hub will be useful in his role as Vice Network Coordinator of PEN.

Professor Catherine Woods has a personal Chair in Physical Activity and Health at the University of Limerick (UL). Her specific expertise is in intervention design and evaluation to promote physical activity, health and well-being in general and clinical populations. Her aim is to bring research, practice and policy closer together to achieve real and sustainable impact, hence her interest in the Policy Evaluation Network. Prof Woods has extensive experience of working with policy makers across health, education and transport sectors in Ireland. She is involved, at a co-ordination level, in an ongoing H2020 project and as part of the JPI HDHL DEDIPAC Knowledge Hub led the initial work on policy interventions for addressing inactivity.

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