Tessa Roseboom is a Professor of Early Development and Health at the Amsterdam UMC, University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Her work focusses on the impact of the early life environment on growth, development and health throughout life. Her studies in the Dutch famine birth cohort provided the first direct evidence in humans that maternal nutrition during gestation affected offspring´s and potentially grand-offspring’s health (www.hongerwinter.nl). She applied the lessons learned about developmental plasticity to observational and experimental studies in current pregnancies, in developed and developing settings.

She is passionate about the societal impact of her work. Consequently, she advocates for investing in a good start in life by showing how fundamentally important a good start is in achieving the SDGs. She actively contributes to translating lessons from research into policy and practice. The ultimate aim of her work is to contribute to improved human health by giving each child the best possible start in life.