- Current academic positions
- 2014- President of the Executive Board - Wageningen University & Research - Wageningen
- 2014- Corresponding member - Royal Academy of Overseas Sciences, the Section of Technical Sciences - Brussels
- 2013- Distinguished Visiting Scholar Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAF) Pretoria
- 2012- Foreign member - Académie d'Agriculture de France - Paris *
- 2009- Member - Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences - Amsterdam
- 2000- Corresponding member - Spanish Real Academia de Ingeniería - Madrid *
- 2000- Foreign member - Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry - Stockholm
- 2000-Member - Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities - Haarlem *
- Other current activities
- 2018- Member of the board of the Foundation of the Dutch National Opera & Ballet Fund
- 2015- Member of the third Steering Committee of the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (CFS-HLPE)
- 2014- Chair of the EU FP7 Evaluation Committee
- 2013- Chair of the selection board of the Johannes van Damprize
- 2013- Chair Corporate Responsibility Committee and since 2009 non-executive member of the board of Unilever
- 2013- Member of the Advisory Board of the Amsterdam Symposium on the History of Food in the Low Countries
- 2011- Member of the editorial board of the literary journal De Gids
- 2010- Member of the board of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra - Amsterdam
- 2010- Member of the Strategic Committee of the Moroccan OCP Group Office Chérifien des Phosphates - Morocco
- 2010- Member of the Council of Advisors of the World Food Prize - Des Moines - U.S.A.
- 2006- Member of the International Trilateral Commission - France | U.S.A | Japan
- member of the board of the Praemium Erasmianum Foundation
- Publications
- Columns NRC Handelsblad, NRC Next en NRC International (2007-) *
- Author of novels and essays published by Prometheus * and AUP *
- Member of PEN worldwide association of writers, Pen Nederland
- Member of Dutch Writer’s Guild Vereniging van Letterkundigen, Amsterdam
- * no website or website not available in English
