Michiel van Boven

Michiel van Boven is an infectious disease epidemiologist and mathematical modeller at the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, UMC Utrecht, and the Centre for Infectious Disease Control at RIVM. His research focuses on the population dynamics of infectious diseases, combining mathematical transmission models with statistical inference to understand transmission, immunity and pathogen evolution, and to evaluate interventions such as vaccination. He has a particular interest in respiratory viruses, including influenza, RSV and SARS-CoV-2, herpesviruses, and infections at the animal-human interface.

A central theme of his work is the development of mechanistic models whose parameters have a clear biological interpretation and can be estimated from epidemiological, serological and experimental data. His research spans stochastic and deterministic transmission models, Bayesian inference, dynamic contact networks, immuno-epidemiology and evolutionary modelling. Current research includes the impact of population ageing and immune senescence on infection and vaccination, inference from large-scale longitudinal serological and wastewater data, dynamic network models for emerging infections, and the transmission and pandemic potential of avian influenza viruses.

Michiel has obtained research funding and led projects funded by NWO, ZonMw, RIVM strategic research programmes, European research programmes and industry. Current and recent projects include Long-term impact of vaccination in older adults: a transmission modelling approach (ZonMw), Predicting pre-existing immunity to novel pandemic viruses (ZonMw), Risk assessment for zoonotic transmission of avian influenza in the Netherlands (ZonMw), and Real-time spatial data-driven modelling of infectious disease outbreaks (ZonMw). He has been modelling lead in Vaccines and infectious diseases in the ageing population project (VITAL), an EU Innovative Medicines Initiative project, and participates in COMPREHEND, an ECDC-funded European consortium combining infectious-disease and health-economic modelling.

Earlier funding includes the NWO Complexity project Host-pathogen co-evolution from an immuno-epidemiological perspective, a ZonMw project on Rapid risk assessment of zoonotic pathogens by integrated analysis of transmission patterns in livestock and humans, and RIVM strategic research projects including Modelling the impact of demographic change on the effectiveness of vaccination and Unveiling the Infection Dynamics of Influenza A. His earlier work on experimental transmission and control of avian influenza was supported through several EU Framework Programme projects, including AVIFLU and FLUAID, and through industry-funded research with Intervet/Schering-Plough Animal Health. Recent industry collaborations include GSK-supported modelling of vaccination and ageing and research with Shionogi on the optimal use of antivirals during future coronavirus pandemics.

Michiel has published more than 100 peer-reviewed papers on infectious disease epidemiology, mathematical biology and evolutionary dynamics. His work ranges from theoretical and methodological studies to experimental transmission studies and large-scale analyses of epidemiological and serological data. His research has contributed to the scientific basis for infectious disease prevention and control and has informed the Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport, the Ministry of Agriculture, the Health Council of the Netherlands, ECDC and WHO.

He is curenly an editor at PLOS Computational Biology and has been editor at PLOS ONE and BMC Infectious Diseases. He has served as an expert for the Dutch Health Council, WHO, ECDC and EFSA, and on national and international research-funding and scientific advisory panels.

At UMC Utrecht, Michiel coordinates the MSc course Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases and supervises PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers and MSc students in infectious disease epidemiology and mathematical modelling.