The Gerrit Grijns Initiative (GGI) is a new collaborative venture between chair groups working on nutrition and human and animal physiology with the aim of improving the health of humans and animals through innovations in the food and feed industry. The idea is that these innovations should come from intensive collaboration between WUR, public authorities and the private sector. 25 WUR professors are taking part in the GGI.
Beriberi
The GGI is named after Gerrit Grijns, the first professor of Animal Physiology in Wageningen (1921 to 1935) and the man, along with the later Nobel Prize winner Christiaan Eijkman, behind the discovery of vitamins. The naming is apposite, says rector magnificus Arthur Mol. ‘What the GGI wants to do is precisely what Gerrit Grijns did back then: investigate how diet contributes to health.’
What the GGI wants to do is precisely what Gerrit Grijns did back then: investigate how diet contributes to health.
Arthur Mol
At the launch of the GGI, great-grandson Dirk Grijns donated to WUR the commemorative book that Gerrit Grijns received on his retirement in 1935. The book was an initiative of a large group of Dutch and international scholars, who all signed it. This exceptional book has now been handed to the Special Collections department of the Forum Library.
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Animal and human science researchers join forces
Wageningen’s greatest: Gerrit Grijns