Carlijn Kamphuis

Dr. Carlijn Kamphuis is an Associate Professor of Public Health at Utrecht University's Department of Interdisciplinary Social Science within the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. Her research focuses on socioeconomic inequalities in health, employing systems thinking to unravel complex interactions between environmental, policy, and individual factors. She leads major projects like Minding the Gap (2023–2028), exploring childhood poverty and mental health, and the VIDI project (2019–2024) on systems approaches to health disparities.

Education: PhD in Public Health from Erasmus University Medical Center (2008), awarded the Dutch Public Health Prize. Notable awards include the L'Oréal UNESCO For Women in Science Award (2016) and a VIDI grant (2018). She has published over 100 peer-reviewed articles and collaborates closely with policymakers and communities to translate research into actionable policies.

Key projects include the IGLO consortium evaluating holistic housing renovations in Utrecht, and the Policy Evaluation Network (PEN) assessing food and activity policies across Europe. She chairs the Program Advisory Committee for her department and advises on initiatives like the One Book One Campus project. Her work emphasizes participatory approaches, including an advisory board of individuals with lived socioeconomic insecurity experiences.

Research themes span urban health, policy evaluation, and systems dynamics, with a focus on reducing health inequalities through systemic interventions. Her recent articles analyze mechanisms linking housing, policy, and mental health, while future work continues to explore complex adaptive systems in public health.