Ecraid

Marion Koopmans receives the ESCMID Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Infection

Ecraid Coordinating Committee member, Professor Marion Koopmans, receives the prestigious ESCMID Award for Outstanding Contributions in the Field of Infection at the 35th ESCMID Global Conference in Vienna, Austria. 

About the Award

This award is for individuals who have made significant strides by driving international policies, setting education standards, or engaging the public on critical issues in the field of infection. In celebration of those who inspire change and shape the future of the field on a global scale, the awardee is recognised during ESCMID Global and is invited to join the ranks of the esteemed ESCMID Fellows.

Professor Koopmans is a leading figure, well known in the field and as someone who actively engages the general public, combatting disinformation, and driving change. This award recognises her many significant contributions to the field of infection over her expansive career. 

She was awarded this prestigous award in a dedicated session at the 35th ESCMID global. Her award lecture - Towards pandemic prevention: moonshot or utopia? - was an eye opening and thought provoking piece showing exactly why she is a worthy first recipeient of this award. 

Biography

Prof. Marion Koopmans is director of the Department of Viroscience at Erasmus Medical Centre in The Netherlands, WHO collaborating centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases, scientific director for Emerging Infectious Diseases of the Netherlands Centre for One Health NCOH and scientific director of the Pandemic and Disaster Preparedness Centre in Rotterdam/Delft The Netherlands. She has been awarded an honorary doctorate of the Danish Technical University and a fellowship of the RoyalWater research institute.

Koopmans has led several large-scale research consortia. She is currently the PI of the national network on arbovirus research OHPACT, and an EU funded consortium VEO, which develops a risk based innovative early warning surveillance in a One Health context, and is deputy coordinator of a recently awarded HERA funded network of centres of excellence for EID research preparedness, DURABLE. In 2021, Koopmans founded the Pandemic and Disaster Preparedness Centre PDPC, a research centre with a focus on the occurrence and prevention of pandemics and climate-related disasters, combining expertise from technical, bio-medical, environmental and social sciences.

  

Her research focuses on emerging infections with special emphasis on unravelling pathways of disease emergence and spread at the human animal interface. Creating global networks to fight infectious diseases systematically and on a large scale is a common thread in Koopmans' work. She also is very interested in translation of scientific data for policy makers and communicating about science to lay audiences. For that, she has received prestigious awards. She is an elected member of the Dutch National Academy of sciences and has been awarded the Stevin prize, the highest awards for research of international standing in the country.

Previous Ecraid-affiliated recipients of ESCMID awards

Previous Ecraid-affiliated recipients of ESCMID awards include:

  • Ecraid co-founder Herman Goossens received the prestigious ESCMID Award for Excellence in Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in 2020.
  • Ecraid CEO Marc Bonten received the distinguished ESCMID Award for Excellence in Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases in 2015.
  • Ecraid CSO Evelina Tacconelli was awarded the ESCMID Lifetime Achievement Award in 2024.