INRICH Member Profile Card

Tanja Houweling

Tanja Houweling

Department of Public Health Rotterdam, Erasmus MC


I am assistant professor at the Department of Public Health, Erasmus MC. My research focuses on socioeconomic inequalities in health and development in the first two decades of life, and the intergenerational transmission of inequalities and disadvantage, worldwide. My work on the linkages between society and health builds on my backgrounds in the medical sciences (PhD public health, MSc epidemiology) and the social sciences (MA cultural & medical anthropology (cum laude) and non-western sociology (cum laude)). I lead cross-disciplinary research consortia, including an NWO funded consortium on a Promising Start in the First 1000 Days of Life in the Netherlands (€1.3m) and internationally collaborative research on health equity and universal health coverage (€2.5m). I also supervise a ZonMW funded project on inequalities in early child development using Generation R birth cohort data (€400k).

Previously, I was senior research associate at the UCL Institute for Global Health and scientific coordinator of a £5 million project on maternal and newborn health in Asia and Africa. Together with partners in India and Bangladesh, we ran large intervention studies, including cluster randomised trials, to improve maternal health and newborn survival. I was also PI of an ESRC-funded multi-country project on socioeconomic inequalities in newborn health (£450k). Between 2005 and 2008, I worked for the WHO Commission on the Social Determinants of Health, and its international Knowledge Network on Early Child Development. I am lead author of four chapters of the Commission’s final report, including the chapters on Early Child Development and Social Protection. (source: Public Health Rotterdam)


Type of member: Regular


Telephone: +31 10 704 37 33

Email Address: tanja.houweling@gmail.com

Website Address: https://employees.publichealthrotterdam.com/profile/tanja-a-j-houweling/

Mailing Address: P.O. Box 2040, 3000 CA, Rotterdam, The Netherlands



profile updated: 11/02/2022