Today we are saying goodbye to Jan Hendrik Richardus, Vice-Chair of the Board of Trustees (BoT) of KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation and we are welcoming Frank Cobelens, as member of Board of Trustees.
Jan Hendrik Richardus, professor of Infectious Diseases and Public Health at Erasmus University, and epidemiologist with a life-long interest in infectious diseases control, provided us for 8 years with invaluable advise, support and guidance. We would like to thank Jan Hendrik enormously for all his work and support in our fight against tuberculosis (TB) and sharing his perspectives from fighting other infectious diseases. Jan Hendrik will be missed, but will always remain a highly valued and respected member of the KNCV family.
Frank Cobelens is no stranger to KNCV. Trained as a physician he worked in infectious disease control, and tropical and travel medicine before joining KNCV as an international research consultant from 2001 to 2008. Frank has a MSc in Epidemiology at The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, as well as PhD in epidemiology of infectious diseases (UvA).
In 2009 Frank joined the Amsterdam Institute of Global Health and Development (AIGHD) with a full professor appointment at the UVA in 2012, combining this with a half-time position as Scientific Director at KNCV from 2013 to 2015. From 2016 he succeeded the late Professor Joep Lange as AIGHD’s Executive Director and the head Of the Global Health Department of Amsterdam University Medical Centers. He retired from these positions while retaining full-time academic tenure.
We welcome Frank on our Board of Trustees and look forward to continuing the long-lasting collaboration with Frank and joining forces to end TB once again.