In Memoriam Ingeborg Kooter

It is with a deeply saddened heart that we received the news that our dear colleague dr. ir. Ingeborg Kooter passed away on Tuesday, March 26, 2024.

Ingeborg was part of MOMENTUM right from the beginning. She was coordinator of one of the first 15 breakthrough projects. Her project was entitled ‘Effect of exposure of environmental weathered microplastics on Lung epithelial cells.’’ I will never forget her unique presentation of her view on microplastics and scuba diving at the first Plastic Health Summit in 2019.

I will also never forget our first workshop in de Bilt in July 2020, when many of us got together to discuss how to bring the 15 breakthrough projects together into one consortium. Ingeborg had so many ideas, which she put forward in a compelling and connecting way. She represented TNO, who invested about 1 million Euros into the first MOMENTUM project, but she was also very aware that we needed to work as a team on this project. The final project proposal was an amazing ‘give and take’ between the 27 partners.

Ingeborg was a proponent of the human microdosing study right from the start, and even though this topic did not find its way into the first MOMENTUM project, she didn’t give up. When working on the MOMENTUM 2.0 project proposal, she managed to find extra funding for this work, including an additional in kind contribution from Plastic Europe, solidifying the bridge with the BRIGID project. Importantly, she was pivotal to our research on the effects of MNPs on the lung, through her dedicated and personal supervision of Irene Gosselink and Maria Kloukinioti, and through her animated contribution to discussions at meetings.

On February 15, Ingeborg’s department at TNO organised a special meeting for Ingeborg. At this meeting, I gave a presentation on the MOMENTUM project and talked about the important role Ingeborg played in our project. I gave her a present, a picture of our consortium in which she is standing with a big smile on her face, and thanked her for all she did for our project, but also for touching our lives. I am so grateful that thanks to MOMENTUM, I got to know Ingeborg, and I am grateful that I got a chance to tell her how much she meant to us. I know that we will never forget her. I wish her family, friends, and colleagues much strength with this great loss.

Juliette Legler