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Dr. Laura Cornelissen DTM&H
Wetenschappelijk Expert
Dr. Laura Cornelissen is a medical doctor with a specialist degree in Obstetrics & Gynaecology. Since 2019, she is working at the Belgian Public Health Institute, Sciensano, at the department of epidemiology of infectious diseases, where she now leads the team of vaccine-preventable diseases.
She completed her training as an M.D. at the KU Leuven University, Belgium and LMU München, Germany. During her specialty training in Ob/gyn she spent one year in a public hospital in Pretoria, South Africa where she combined clinical work with the role of facility coordinator for a large WHO-lead multicenter trial on maternal sepsis. Convinced of the importance of public and international health, she further obtained a diploma in tropical medicine and international health (DTM&H) and MSc International Health from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Since the start of her career at Sciensano, she has co-authored several papers on vaccine-preventable diseases, in particular COVID-19 and measles, acted as a peer reviewer for renowned journals, presented on international conferences and contributed to newspaper articles and television broadcasts. As co-lead of the Belgian Risk Assessment Group and member of the Belgian NITAG, Dr. Cornelissen has had first-hand experience with the challenges of advising policy makers in uncertain pandemic times. She acts as Belgian National Focal Point for vaccine-preventable diseases for ECDC and as such is also a member of the newly founded European Immunisation and Vaccine Monitoring Board and the representative of Belgium in the EU-NITAG collaboration.