Hans Heesterbeek holds MSc degrees in both plant pathology (Wageningen, 1986) and mathematics (University of Amsterdam, 1988) and a PhD degree in mathematical biology (Leiden, 1992). He has a broad research interest on the interaction between biology/medicine and mathematics. His focus is on the dynamics of infectious diseases, currently in particular on the interaction between ecosystems and (human and animal) disease epidemiology, with an overall emphasis on the development and use of mathematical tools to generate relevant biological and public health insight. Recently, he also became interested in using insight and methods from theoretical ecology and infectious disease dynamics to study emerging phenomena in a broader range of complex (social, societal and financial) systems. In addition, he has an active interest in the history of science and is working on a book on the history of the study of epidemics.

Hans co-authored more than 100 research papers and was involved in four books, as editor and author. He co-authored two textbooks on mathematical modelling, the most recent being Mathematical Tools for Understanding Infectious Disease Dynamics (with Odo Diekmann and Tom Britton; Princeton University Press, 2013).

Hans is founder and editor-in-chief of the journal of Epidemics (2008-present), aimed at infectious disease dynamics, and he is editor (2009-present) of Proceedings of the Royal Society B, which covers the whole of biology. He received a Vici-grant (2005-2010) from the Dutch medical research council ZonMw/NWO. He chairs the selection committee for the Vidi-grant of ZonMw/NWO. He combines research with management as head of the (clinical) department of Farm Animal Health of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht University.