prof. dr. Chantal Rovers

About Chantal Rovers

About Chantal Rovers

After completing her medical studies in Nijmegen, Prof. Dr. Chantal Rovers (1971) was trained as an internist specializing in infectious diseases at the Rijnstate Hospital and Radboudumc. In 2007, she earned her PhD under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Jos van der Meer, Prof. Dr. Frans Corstens, and Prof. Dr. Wim Oyen, on research into the value of 18F-FDG-PET in cases of fever of unknown origin and the diagnostics of infectious diseases. As an internist-infectiologist, she became staff member of the Internal Medicine department at Radboudumc. Her research focuses on outbreaks of infectious diseases, including Q fever, pandemic preparedness, and outbreak management. She is one of the chairs of the crisis policy team at Radboudumc. On March 1, 2021, she was appointed full professor focusing on infectious disease outbreaks. In addition, she received the title of Principal Clinician at Radboudumc twice (2015, 2019) for innovations in improving care for patients affected by severe infectious diseases such as viral hemorrhagic fevers (e.g., Ebola or Marburg virus). The related projects have made significant contributions to the establishment of the high-level isolation unit (2022), where she is affiliated as a medical manager. She was also appointed as Principal Investigator at the Netherlands Center for One Health (2020) and at Radboudumc (2022) and as Research Group Leader at Radboudumc (2023). Besides caring for patients with (chronic) Q fever, she has specialized in patient care and research on fever and inflammation of unknown origin. In education, she is active in teaching within her field of expertise and in the innovation course for first-year medical and biomedical science students. Since 2023, she has also been appointed as medical flow manager being part of the flow management team that aims to optimize the flow of patients.

Personal prizes & awards

• Radboud compliment ("pluim") for efforts for the Marburg crisis team in 2008 and new Influenza A H1N1 in 2009 (awarded in 2010)
• Principal Clinician designation for innovation in the care of patients with Q fever and improving outbreak management (2015)
• Appointed as a member of the Royal College of Physicians Edinburgh for special services in the field of fever of unknown origin and Q fever (2017)
• Second Principal Clinician designation due to innovation within high-level isolation unit and improving care for patients with a very serious contagious infection (2019)
• Appointed as Principal Investigator at Netherlands Center for One Health (2020)
• Appointed as full professor Outbreaks of Infectious Diseases (2021)
• Radboud Medal ("Penning") awarded for commitment to and communication about COVID-19 for the broader public (2022
• Appointed as Principal Investigator at Radboudumc (2022)
• Appointed as Research Group Leader Radboudumc (2023)

Additional Functions

• Member national response or outbreak management teams (Marburg 2008, Ebola 2014, Lassa 2019, COVID-19 2020, Mpox 2022)
• member guideline committees (chronic Q fever 2011, Q fever fatigue syndrome 2012 and 2019
• Member of the national platform on preparation for high consequence infectious diseases (“Platform preparatie A-ziekten”, since 2014)
• Member of the committee “Pandemic Preparedness Plan” of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (2021-2022)
• Member of the Advisory Board of Q-uestion, foundation for patients with Q fever (2016 to present)
• Board member ESCCAR (European Study Group on Chlamydiales, Coxiella, Anaplasma, Rickettsia and other intracellular bacteria) (2017 to present)
• Member of the committee for research with non-human primates on behalf of the Minister of Education, Culture and Science (2024-2025)
• Member of the Long-term effects of COVID-19 committee of the Health Council (2021 to 2022 and 2024 to 2025)
• Member of the COVID-19 ZonMw committee pool, committee member for various grant calls (2022 to present)

Expertise

• Outbreaks of infectious diseases
• Q fever
• Fever of unknown origin
• High consequence infectious diseases
• Pandemic preparedness
• Outbreak preparedness and outbreak management
• Flow management
• Crisis management