Professor Dr Wija van Staveren is Professor of Nutrition and Gerontology in the Division of Human Nutrition and Epidemiology at Wageningen University in Wageningen, the Netherlands. Her career has focused on nutrition during the life cycle. From 1962 to 1972 she was a research dietitian and spent 2 years in Surinam developing a weaning food for infants. She joined the Wageningen faculty in 1972, during which time she received her MSc at London University and her doctorate, in 1985, on the validity and reproducibility of food intake measurements. She also holds a teaching position at the University Medical Centre in Utrecht, is active in the longitudinal research study SENECA (Survey in Europe on Nutrition and the Elderly, a Concerted Action), and is a member of the Health Council of the Netherlands, Chair of the Nationwide Food Consumption Survey (VCP), and Chair of the Board responsible for the Dutch Nutrient Database (NEVO). On October 4, 2002, she received international eminence as the first woman knighted in the Netherlands, receiving the Order of the Netherlands Lion from the Mayor of Wageningen.
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