Alida Melse-Boonstra
Professor of Global Nutrition, Division of Human Nutrition and Health, 
Wageningen University, the Netherlands.
Fascinated by the role of micronutrients in human health, Alida Melse-Boonstra pursues the mission to tackle the global burden of 'hidden hunger', i.e. vitamin and mineral deficiencies, through food-based strategies. Amongst others, she studied the nutritional potential of bio-fortified crops and edible insects in the diets of African children. Her specific expertise lies in the application of advanced stable isotope techniques to determine nutrient bioavailability in humans. More recently, her work has been drawn to the quest of how to fulfill the mutual goals of nutrient adequacy and environmental sustainability of the food supply in different contexts through diet modeling.
She serves as a committee member of the Dutch Health Council and regularly serves at expert panels and special missions of the International Atomic Energy Agency in their ‘Atoms for Peace’ program. She is also a board member of the Global Partnership for Nutrition Initiative, that works with Small and Medium Enterprises and policy stakeholders in Low-and Middle-Income Countries to produce food products that meet global nutrition standards while remaining culturally relevant, affordable, and accessible to the communities they serve. Professor Alida Melse-Boonstra chairs the Global Nutrition Group at the Division of Human Nutrition and Health, Wageningen University. She teaches in undergraduate, graduate and post-graduate courses on topics related to their research.