Marion Koopmans

Maria Petronella Gerarda Koopmans (born 21 September 1956) is a Dutch virologist who is Head of the Erasmus MC Department of Viroscience. Her research considers emerging infectious diseases, noroviruses and veterinary medicine. In 2018 she was awarded the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) Stevin Prize. She serves on the scientific advisory group of the World Health Organization.

Early life and education Koopmans studied veterinary medicine at Utrecht University. She graduated from her Master's degree 1976, and remained there for her doctoral research. She earned two graduate degrees in veterinary medicine, and was officially registered as a veterinary microbiologist in 1977. She became increasingly interested in virology, and moved to the United States to specialise in viruses that can be transmitted between animals and humans. From 1991 to 1994 Koopmans completed a fellowship at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, where she studied enteric viruses. She has since worked with Elmoubasher Farag to test camels for antibodies against MERS. Koopmans is a member of the scientific advisory group (SAG) of the World Health Organization's R&D Blueprint project. The project looks to understand what has gone wrong with epidemic and pandemic responses, and looks to build global disease preparedness. Koopmans also leads the World Health Organization centre for Emerging Viral Diseases. She is the scientific coordinator of COMPARE, a Horizon 2020 project that looks to develop next generation sequencing techniques for outbreak identification and mapping. COMPARE look to contain and mitigate foodborne illnesses. In 2019 she was awarded a $9 million NWO grant to establish a consortium, the Versatile Emerging infectious disease Observatory (VEO), that will study how changes in environment and travel will impact the risk of infectious diseases. The diseases considered by VEO include vector-borne and zoonotic diseases, as well as hidden pathogens. Koopmans wrote an article for Nature in which she called for a transformation in epidemic preparedness and response. In the article, she quoted the World Health Organization's leader on health emergencies, "We are entering a very new phase of high-impact epidemics… This is a new normal." In 2019 Koopmans was elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

From the start of 2020, Koopmans worked to understand SARS-CoV-2 and the spread of coronavirus disease. In the Netherlands, Koopmans made an effort to test healthcare workers, and identified that there were large numbers of asymptomatic carriers amongst the Dutch population. With her team at the Erasmus MC, Koopmans looked to understand the efficacy of antibody tests. Alongside leading the scientific response, Koopmans was also involved with scientific communication about the virus, making use of social media and media interviews to share up-to-date research with the public. Koopmans said that as humans occupied more of planet earth, the number of dangerous diseases transmitted from animals to humans would increase. She was appointed to the coronavirus disease advisory panel of the European Commission. 2017 Technical University of Denmark Honorary Doctorate Æresdoktor 2018 Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research Stevin Prize 2021 Irispenning

Selected publications