Rutger Engels is an award-winning full professor in Developmental Psychopathology, at the Erasmus University Rotterdam. He is a board member of the venture philanthropy ‘De Verre Bergen’. From 2014-2018, he was CEO of the Trimbos Institute, the National Institute for Mental Health and Addictions, and from 2018-2021, he was Rector Magnificus of the Erasmus University Rotterdam.

His fundamental and applied research focuses on mental health and substance use in adolescents and adults. He publishes extensively in the top-ranking journals in Addiction, Psychology, Psychiatry and Public Health disciplines (H-index=108). In the last 10+ years, he has coordinated programs aiming to develop, test, and ship (technology-enabled) interventions for mental health and addictions. In this context, he partnered with national governments, European Union, WHO Europa and Geneva, start-ups, and HNWI.