Robbert is an immunologist and vaccine R&D professional with a track record in academia and in industry. He received his cum laude PhD in 1994 at Leiden University on the topic of coronavirus mRNA transcription. He then trained with Dr Rafi Ahmed, first at UCLA (1994-1995) and then at Emory University (1999-2000), focusing on the T cell immunology of chronic viral infection (LCMV), dengue virus vaccines, and human immune responses to YFV-17D. At Caltech, in Dr Jim Strauss’ lab he constructed a dengue/yfv chimera for vaccine research (1996-1999). Returning to his native Netherlands, he worked on RSV vaccine-enhanced disease using the BRSV infection model (2001-2004). 

In 2008, he joined GSK Vaccines in Rixensart, Belgium, in roles of increasing responsibility reaching Sr Director level. He created and led a translational science team that connected novel biomarkers and readouts with all vaccine R&D projects, including malaria, TB, VZV, influenza, Staphylococcus, HPV, and studied the mode of action of vaccine adjuvants in a clinical research setting. Highlights were the involvement with the TB M72/AS01 proof-of-concept study and the RTS,S/AS01 malaria challenge studies. Finally, he led the Task Force that shaped GSK response to the COVID-19 pandemic and that led to multiple collaborations using GSK’s AS03 adjuvant (Medicago, IPD, SK Bioscience, Sanofi, Clover). 

In 2021 he left GSK to join CEPI as Clinical Research Lead. In 2022 he joined BioNTech as VP Translational Science, taking responsibility for the biomarker strategy of all BioNTech’s infectious disease vaccine programs and building a team to lead the individual projects in close collaboration with the clinical teams, safety, regulatory and CMC experts. He left BioNTech is 2024 and started his own consultancy company that is now working with a global network of clients. Robbert published >100 peer-reviewed papers, including in top-rated journals such as Nature, Cell, Lancet and Immunity.