Erik Timmermans is an Assistant Professor and Epidemiologist at the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care, UMC Utrecht. His research focuses on lifestyle and environmental risk factors for chronic diseases.
He studied Human Movement Sciences (cum laude) at the University of Groningen and obtained his PhD in epidemiology of aging at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. He is involved in several (inter)national consortia focusing on the exposome, urban health, and healthy aging, and is co-founder of the Geoscience and Health Cohort Consortium. He is a member of the EAPC Population Science and Public Health Nucleus and received the prestigious 2025 Senior Scientist Dekker Fellowship from the Dutch Heart Foundation.
In the first phase of EXPOSOME-NL, he served as a senior researcher, linking the general and specific external exposome to cardiometabolic and cardiovascular diseases.
In the second phase of EXPOSOME-NL, Erik Timmermans is the Project Leader of Project 2F – Cardiovascular Diseases. Within this project, he investigates how long-term environmental exposures and acute triggers contribute to the risk of cardiovascular disease, including coronary heart disease and ischemic stroke.
My goal is to increase our understanding of how the living environment can help prevent cardiovascular disease and support public health and healthy aging.
Noreen Z. Siddiqui, Jochem O. Klompmaker, Eric B. Rimm, Joline W.J. Beulens, Jaime E. Hart, Joreintje D. Mackenbach, Maria G.M. Pinho, Peter James
Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases (2025)
Mingwei Liu, Erik J. Timmermans, Dan Zou, Diederick E. Grobbee, Suhong Zhou, Ilonca Vaartjes
Environmental Pollution, 356 (2024)
Mingwei Liu, Paul Meijer, Thao Minh Lam, Erik J Timmermans, Diederick E Grobbee, Joline W J Beulens, Ilonca Vaartjes, Jeroen Lakerveld
European Journal of Preventive Cardiology (2023)
Erik J Timmermans, Anna E Leeuwis, Michiel L Bots, Juliette L van Alphen, Geert Jan Biessels, Hans-Peter Brunner-La Rocca, L Jaap Kappelle, Albert C van Rossum, Matthias J P van Osch, Ilonca Vaartjes; Heart-Brain Connection Consortium
Health & Place, volume 79 (2023)
Thao Minh Lam, Alfred J. Wagtendonk, Nicolette R. den Braver, Derek Karssenberg, Ilonca Vaartjes, Erik J. Timmermans, Joline W. J. Beulens, Jeroen Lakerveld
Obesity, volume 31, issue 1 (2023)
Thao Minh Lam, Zhiyong Wang, Ilonca Vaartjes, Derek Karssenberg, Dick Ettema, Marco Helbich, Erik J. Timmermans, Lawrence D. Frank, Nicolette R. den Braver, Alfred J. Wagtendonk, Joline W. J. Beulens & Jeroen Lakerveld
International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity volume 19, Article number: 50 (2022)
e.j.timmermans-5@umcutrecht.nl
Department of Epidemiology and Health
Economics Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care
UMC Utrecht, Utrecht, the Netherlands
The environment we live in has a dominant impact on our health. It explains an estimated seventy percent of the chronic disease burden. Where we live, what we eat, how much we exercise, the air we breathe and whom we associate with; all of these environmental factors play a role. The combination of these factors over the life course is called the exposome. There is general (scientific) consensus that understanding more about the exposome will help explain the current burden of disease and that it provides entry points for prevention and ...
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