Gijs Goossens is Professor of Cardiometabolic Physiology of Obesity at the Department of Human Biology (NUTRIM School of Nutrition and Translational Research in Metabolism), Maastricht University Medical Centre+. He has an international research standing in the area of obesity-related adipose tissue dysfunction and cardiometabolic impairments, and is one of the pioneers in the field of adipose tissue and skeletal muscle oxygenation in humans. The overarching goal of his translational research is to better understand the mechanisms underlying adipose tissue dysfunction and cardiometabolic complications in people with obesity, with the aim to establish more personalized, effective lifestyle and pharmacological interventions to improve cardiometabolic health, with healthy ageing as the ultimate goal. The latter is investigated on a whole-body, tissue and cellular level, by integrating innovative human in vivo techniques, analyses in adipose tissue and skeletal muscle biopsies, and mechanistic in vitro experiments using human primary adipocytes and myotubes.

For his work, he has received several prestigious awards, including the Young Investigator Award in Clinical Research from the European Association for the Study of Obesity (2011) and the Rising Star Award from the European Foundation for the Study of Diabetes (2014). Prof. Goossens served as President of the Netherlands Association for the Study of Obesity (2014-2020), Chair of the international obesity congress Zoom Forward 22 (May 2022, Maastricht), and Vice-Chair of the Maastricht UMC+ Research Committee (2017-2023). Currently, he is Chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Association for the Study of Obesity.