Hendrik-Jan Roest graduated from Utrecht University Veterinary School in 1996 and worked for six-and-a-half years as a veterinary practitioner. In 2003, he switched to Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR) in Lelystad to specialise in veterinary microbiology. Between 2005 and 2012, he was head of the Laboratory for General Bacteriology. In 2006, he became OIE expert on Contagious Equine Metritis (CEM). Hendrik-Jan is the initiator of Q fever research at WBVR and isolated Coxiella burnetii for the first time in the Netherlands. This led to his PhD thesis entitled “Coxiella burnetii in pregnant goats” in 2013. He was a member of the Dutch and EU Q fever expert panels. He also initiated research on Chlamydia, tularemia and Brucella spp. in Dutch wildlife and is still involved in research projects on intracellular bacteria.Since September 2012, he has been the head of several departments at WBVR, as well as member of the Management Team of WBVR. He was quartermaster of the Netherlands Centre for One Health (NCOH) and is currently NCOH and Wageningen Research representative and project management team member of One Health EJP, a Horizon 2020 project.Hendrik-Jan’s areas of expertise and interest are: veterinary microbiology with a special emphasis on intracellular bacteria, zoonoses, and the One Health approach in research. He strongly believes in the added value of multidisciplinary and transdisciplinary approaches to answer complex (research) questions with societal implications. Connecting people and disciplines is a leading theme in his work.