Roel Vermeulen is a Professor of Environmental Epidemiology and Exposome Science at the Institute for Risk Assessment Sciences (IRAS), Utrecht University and at the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, University Medical Center Utrecht, The Netherlands. He was appointed Utrecht University Distinguished University Professor in 2024, and is also scientific director of the data and knowledgeful on healthy urban living.
His scientific research focuses on environmental risk factors for cancer, cardiometabolic and neurological diseases through inter and trans-disciplinary research. One of his main research areas is the exploration of new methods for quantifying the external and internal exposome.
The exposome concept refers to all environmental factors that we humans are exposed to on a daily basis: what we eat, the air we breathe, our social interactions and lifestyle choices such as smoking and exercising. Interacting with the genome, the exposome defines individual health at different stages throughout the life course, including foetal life.
Researchers in the field of the exposome are trying to capture everything to understand which, how, in what quantities, and in what circumstances environmental drivers have an effect on our health. Vermeulen has served on many international committees including the WHO and the National Toxicology Program in the US. He is a member of the Dutch Health Council and serves in the board of the Expertise Center on Occupational Diseases (Lexces).