It is with great sadness that we share the news of the passing of Hanneke Wijnhoven, assistant professor in the Department of Health Sciences at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam.
After completing her PhD at the former EMGO Institute of VU University Medical Center, and briefly pursuing medical training, Hanneke made a deliberate choice to build a career as a researcher. In 2008, she joined the then still young Department of Health Sciences as a postdoctoral researcher on a project on malnutrition in older adults. She developed a screening instrument for malnutrition in older adults that is still widely used in home care today.
Malnutrition in older adults remained an important theme in her research, through which she also supervised several PhD candidates and postdoctoral researchers. In recent years, her research expanded to nutrition and healthy aging, with attention to sex differences and neurodiversity. In this work, she frequently made use of data from the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam. Hanneke was a critical researcher who did not shy away from analytical challenges. She conveyed her enthusiasm for science to students through the many master’s internships she supervised.
Hanneke was not only an excellent researcher, but also a highly committed and valued teacher. She contributed to various courses on nutrition and methodology within the Health Sciences program. More recently, she taught the course Lifestyle and Health, which she had developed with great energy and dedication for the new BSc curriculum in Health Sciences. As part of this course, she created high-quality self-study modules on scientific integrity and ethics for our students, for which she recently received her Senior Teaching Qualification. She also served for many years as chair of the BSc Education Committee for Health Sciences, a role she fulfilled with great dedication and enthusiasm.
In Hanneke, we lose a deeply committed, kind, and unique colleague who leaves a lasting impression on students and colleagues through her warmth and expertise. We would have very much wished to have had her with us for much longer.
Our thoughts are with her family, her parents and sister, extended family members, and friends. We wish them strength and support as they cope with this sudden loss.
Source: Based on a message from Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, with additions from APH.