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The Start of the Academic Year 2025-2026 on 1 September focuses on the year theme Healthy Planet. Our keynote speakers, Floor Haalboom and Lidwien Smit, are experts in the field of Planetary Health and bring rigorous science with the kind of self-reflection that itches and inspires action. Curious what you can expect from them?

Floor Haalboom - the archival detective

As a medical and environmental historian, Floor Haalboom has a knack for digging up histories that are not easily accessible to everyone. Over the past few years, she has been tracing industrial interests in Dutch livestock farming over time and she can’t wait to share some of the uncomfortable findings she has uncovered connecting the meat on your plate to health issues and environmental degradation like the nitrogen crisis. During her keynote speech, expect critical reflection on the role of science in the rise of factory farms and surprising images that will prompt reflection on how past decisions continue to impact the health of our planet, and how we might begin to make different choices.

Lidwien Smit - the clean air advocate

Lidwien Smit has the groundedness of someone whose research doesn’t sit quietly in the lab. Her work on the complex interactions between human, animal and environmental health has taken her to the places where pathogens and contaminants like to spread: from livestock farms to poultry houses to schools. In her keynote, she will present a deceptively simple solution to reduce the transmission of pathogens, such as SARS-CoV-2, in schools. Expect an urgent appeal for international cooperation (‘because viruses and chemicals do not respect national borders’) and unshakable optimism about what our university community can achieve together. After listening to her, you’ll walk away empowered to help build a healthy planet for generations to come.