Marjolein Visser

Prof. Marjolein Visser is a Full Professor at the Faculty of Science, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, leading the Nutrition and Health section within the Department of Health Sciences. She holds concurrent professorships in APH - Aging & Later Life and APH - Health Behaviors & Chronic Diseases. Her roles include Research Coordinator of the EU-funded Horizon2020 PROMISS project and co-coordinator of the MooDFOOD study. She heads the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA) and chairs the Health Council of the Netherlands' Standing Committee on Nutrition.

Education: PhD (1995) and Master's (1990) in Human Nutrition from Wageningen University, with a focus on body composition and energy metabolism in elderly populations.

Research Interests: Healthy aging, nutrition, malnutrition, physical activity, sarcopenia, and chronic disease prevention in aging populations. She investigates the interplay between nutrition, physical function, and chronic conditions in older adults, with contributions to global studies on aging and health policies.

Recent publications focus on muscle mass-physical functioning links, longitudinal cohort analyses, appetite assessment methods, and accelerometer-based physical activity tracking in older adults. Her work emphasizes translational research to inform public health strategies.

Grants/Projects: Lead investigator on LASA (2021-2024), coordinator of EU projects PROMISS and MooDFOOD, and member of the MaNuEL Knowledge Hub. She supervises 13 PhD theses and teaches courses on geriatrics, nutrition, and research integrity at VU Amsterdam and affiliated institutions.

Labs/Teams: Core contributor to the Longitudinal Aging Study Amsterdam (LASA), a multi-decade cohort study on aging processes. Active in interdisciplinary collaborations with institutions like the European Geriatric Medicine Society and Leyden Academy of Aging.