Louise Vet is former-director of NIOO-KNAW (1999-2019) and emeritus professor in Evolutionary Ecology at Wageningen University. She is a biologist with a broad interest in ecology and evolution of multitrophic interactions. Her research involves chemical, behavioural and molecular ecology of plants and insects in a community context, delivering basic knowledge for the strategic development of sustainable agro-ecosystems that are primarily based on the prevention of pests and diseases (life-support function of biodiversity). She is an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Vet was awarded several international prizes for her research (e.g. British Rank Prize for Nutrition) and serves on a diversity of national and international boards and committees. In addition to her professional interest in high quality ecological scientific research she has a special interest in communicating the importance of ecology to the general public (lectures, columns, media). Her outreach focuses on achieving a positive interaction between ecology and economy. Practice what you preach: she was the driving force behind the new NIOO building, the most sustainable laboratory/office complex in the Netherlands (www.nioo.knaw.nl/en/building), based on Cradle to cradle/Circle Economy principles, for which she received the 2012 Golden Pyramid state prize for excellence in commissioning work in architecture. Linked to these outreach activities Vet stimulates public-private partnerships to encourage new eco-technological developments.
Presently, in addition to the many other boards and committees that she serves on, she is chairing a broad societal coalition of scientists, nature organisations, agro-food chain, farmers, retail, banks that is working towards a large national plan to bend the curve of biodiversity decline (Deltaplan Biodiversiteitsherstel).
In December 2017 she was awarded the highest honour of the British Ecological Society. This Honorary Membership recognises exceptional contributions at international level to the generation, communication and promotion of ecological knowledge and solutions.
In 2018 she was elected number 1 in the Sustainable 100, the annual list of the Netherlands’ “greenest thinkers and doers”.
Upon her step-down as director of NIOO on October 31, 2019 she received the distinction of Knight in the Order of the Lion of the Netherlands, one of the highest royal decorations.
