Name: Ellen Kampman
Function: Professor in Diet and Cancer
Faculty: Agrotechnology and Food Science
Department: Human nutrition
Employee since: 1996

The best thing about Wageningen UR (University & Research centre) is: “Nowhere will you find such diversity in research as here.”

"All those different types of research and all within one faculty: that’s what makes Wageningen UR unique. Exactly this aspect appealed to me when I started my studies here in 1981. I wasn’t exactly sure what I wanted to do and here I could choose any direction. Quite quickly, though, I knew food and health would become my terrain. After my graduation in 1988 - this was still a time when the government allowed you to take your time – I decided to obtain my experience elsewhere. I worked at different universities, including Harvard University in Boston and the University of Washington in Seattle, but also at TNO in Zeist. I have been working at Wageningen since 1996 and it suits me well. It does feel, though, as if I have ended up somewhere completely different. The pub hopping days of my student life have been replaced by theatre and restaurants. I didn’t know the neighbourhood where I live now back then but, all in all, it still feels familiar.

Food and cancer
Wageningen UR sets the tone in the world when it comes to the scientific research of food and health. The research we do varies strongly: from research at cell level to research of the social aspects of food. My area of expertise is food and cancer. We have recently conducted research of the effect of folic acid in the prevention of colon cancer. In other words, is it useful to add folic acid to food thereby reducing the chance of obtaining colon cancer? This type of research has a large societal impact. The great thing about this research is that it’s conducted in cooperation with other parts of Wageningen UR and is, thus, not limited to our own department.

Our challenge is to inform the greater public of our scientific knowledge. It’s about time too because there is a lot of confusion when it comes to food and health. I would like to yell it from the rooftops that vitamin supplements are not a substitute for eating the actual vegetables and fruit themselves. You really do have to eat your beans….

More women at the top
It would be a good thing if there was more diversity within the management functions of Wageningen UR. An organisation such as this needs good men and women at the top. Both groups look at policy issues from different perspectives. By the way, a management function does not automatically mean a suffering function as there is plenty of space for a life outside it.

Speaking for myself, I have always been given the space to travel my own path. I like that and it motivates me. During my oration last year, I gave Wageningen UR a well meant word of thanks.

Highest IQ of the Netherlands
Did you know that Wageningen has the highest IQ of the Netherlands? Not a surprise, of course, because so many people are involved with the university and the DLO-institutes…”