H.H. (Hinke) Haisma

Prof. Dr. Ir. H.H. (Hinke) Haisma is a Professor of Child Nutrition and Population Health and Head of the Department of Demography at the University of Groningen's Faculty of Spatial Sciences. She holds a Rosalind Franklin Fellowship and leads the Population Research Centre. Her expertise spans child nutrition, global health, and the Capability Approach, emphasizing multidimensional child growth assessment.

Education: MSc in Human Nutrition (Wageningen University, 1992), PhD in Medical Sciences (University of Groningen, 2004). Professional roles include positions at the IAEA, Federal University in Pelotas (Brazil), and Hanze University of Applied Sciences. Current research focuses on integrating biomedical and social science perspectives to address health inequalities.

Research Interests: Multidimensional child growth indices, nutrition transition dynamics, breastfeeding decision-making, health-seeking behaviors in Africa, and gender-responsive health systems. She chairs multiple international task forces and collaborates globally on initiatives like the Multi-Dimensional Index for Child Growth.

Key Projects: NICHE-funded capacity-building in Tanzania, Bangladesh-based studies on nutritional wellbeing, and WHO-linked child growth monitoring frameworks. Supervised PhD topics include breastfeeding practices in the Netherlands, health-seeking in Tanzania, and food practices in Groningen.