Carl Koppeschaar


Carl Koppeschaar studied astronomy and physics before dedicating himself to science writing. In his pursuit of the shadow of the Moon during total solar eclipses, he traveled to the most exotic places on Earth. The only place left to visit was the Moon, where he researched and wrote the Moon Handbook.

When not observing, doing research on influenza or the epidemiology of infectious diseases and zoonoses , number theory, or science writing, Carl may be found on golf courses, trying to launch golf balls into Low Earth Orbit. He is curator of the virtual arms and armour museum Scharrekoppaeum.

On February 1, 2000 minor planet 7973 Koppeschaar in our solar system was named after him. On August 1, 2001 one of Uncle Scrooge's money entrepôts fell under the blows of the demolition ball for the erection of a statue for the 'inventor of the Moon Dial'.

In June 2017 Carl was appointed director of Vierkant voor Wiskunde, based at the national research institute for mathematics and computer science (CWI) in the Netherlands.

Selected articles

C.E. Koppeschaar: The Mars effect unriddled. Science or Pseudo? The Mars effect and other claims. Proceedings of the Third EuroSkeptics Congress, October 4-5, 1991, Amsterdam, pp 162-184.

C.E. Koppeschaar: Sports and Recreational Activities on the Moon. ICEUM-4. Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on the Exploration and Utilisation of the Moon, 10-14 July 2000. ESA SP-462, September 2000, ISBN 92-9092-689-2, pp. 337-339.

Volp, J., Foing, B., ten Kate, I., Rombaut, H., Koppeschaar, C., van Susante, P., Pachera, S., Groemer, G., Sanctuary, H., Marshall, W.: Lunar Explorers Society: International Outreach Programme SAO/NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

R.L. Marquet, A.I.M. Bartelds, S.P. van Noort, C.E. Koppeschaar, J.Paget, F.G. Schellevis and J. van der Zee: An internet-based monitoring of influenza-like illness (ILI) in the general population of the Netherlands during influenza seasons 2003-2004. BMC Public Health, 2006, 6:242. Ook als: Basados en Internet de vigilancia de síndrome gripal (ILI) en la población general de los Países Bajos durante la temporada de gripe 2003-2004.

S.P. van Noort, M. Muehlen, H. Rebelo de Andrade, C. Koppeschaar, J.M. Lima Lourenço, M.G.M. Gomes: Gripenet: an internet-based system to monitor influenza-like illness uniformly across Europe. Eurosurveillance, Volume 12, Issue 7-8, July/August, 2007.

I.H.M. Friesema, C.E. Koppeschaar, G.A. Donker, F. Dijkstra, S.P. van Noort, R. Smallenburg, M.A.B. van der Sande, W. van der Hoek: Internet-based monitoring of influenza-like illness in the general population: experience of five influenza seasons in the Netherlands. Vaccine, Volume 27, Number 45, 23 October 2009, pp. 6353-6357. ISSN 0264-410X.

Marit M.A. de Lange, Adam Meijer, Ingrid H.M. Friesema, Gé A. Donker, Carl E. Koppeschaar, Wim van der Hoek: Comparison of five surveillance systems of influenza-like illness during the influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus pandemic and their link to media attention. BMC Public Health, 2013, 13:881 doi:10.1186/1471-2458-13-881.

L. van Asten, E.B. Fanoy, M.P.G. Koopmans, R. Enserink, M. Hooiveld, S. de Jong, C. Koppeschaar, C, Reusken, J.E. van Steenbergen, M-J. Veldman-Ariesen,.L.A. van Wuyckhuise, A. Ziemann, M.E.E. Kretzchmar: Mogelijkheden van syndroomsurveillance. Hoofdstuk 3 in: Staat van Infectieziekten in Nederland 2011. Rijksinstituut voor Volksgezondheid en Milieu, Ministerie van Volksgezondheid, Welzijn en Sport.

Liselotte van Asten, Ewout B. Fanoy, Mariëtte Hooiveld, Marion P.G. Koopmans, Mirjam E. Kretzschmar en de Werkgroep inventarisatie syndroomsurveillance (Remko Enserink, Sandra de Jong, Carl Koppeschaar, Chantal Reusken, Jim. E. van Steenbergen, Marie-José Veldman Ariesen, Linda A. van Wuykhuise, Alexandra Ziemann, Kees van den Wijngaard, Paul Bijkerk): Syndromic surveillance: a finger on the pulse of public health. Ned Tijdschr Geneeskd. 2014;158:A7415.

Paolo Bajardi, Daniela Paolotti, Lorenzo Richiardi, Alessandro Vespignani, Sebastian Funk, Ken Eames, John Edmunds, Clement Turbelin, Marion Debin, Vittoria Colizza, Ronald Smallenburg, Carl Koppeschaar, Ana Franco, Vitor Faustino, Annasara Carnahan: Determinants of participation in the internet-based European influenza surveillance platform Influenzanet. Journal of Medical Internet Research 2014;16(3):e78); doi: 10.2196/jmir.3010

Paolotti, Daniela; Carnahan, Annasara; Colizza, Vittoria; Eames, Ken; Edmunds, John; Gomes, Gabriela; Koppeschaar, Carl; Rehn, Moa; Smallenburg, Ronald; Turbelin, Clément; Van Noort, Sander; Vespignani, Alessandro: Web-based participatory surveillance of infectious diseases: the Influenzanet participatory surveillance experience. Clinical Microbiology and Infection, Volume 20, Issue 1, pages 17–21, January 2014; doi: 10.1111/1469-0691.12477

Pietro Cantarelli, Marion Debin, Clément Turbelin, Chiara Poletto, Thierry Blanchon, Alessandra Falchi, Thomas Hanslik, Isabelle Bonmarin, Daniel Levy-Bruhl, Alessandra Micheletti, Daniela Paolotti, Alessandro Vespignani, John Edmunds, Ken Eames, Ronald Smallenburg, Carl Koppeschaar, Ana O Franco, Vitor Faustino, AnnaSara Carnahan, Moa Rehn and Vittoria Colizza: The representativeness of a European multi-center network for influenza-like-illness participatory surveillance. BMC Public Health 2014, 14:984; doi:10.1186/1471-2458-14-984

Paolo Bajardi, Daniela Paolotti, Alessandro Vespignani, Ken Eames, Sebastian Funk, John Edmunds, Clement Turbelin, Marion Debin, Vittoria Colizza, Ronald Smallenburg, Carl Koppeschaar, Ana O. Franco, Vitor Faustino, AnnaSara Carnahan, Moa Rehn, Franco Merletti, Jeroen Douwes, Ridvan Firestone, Lorenzo Richiardi: Association between recruitment methods and attrition in internet-based studies. PLOS ONE, December 09, 2014. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0114925.

Mart L. Steijn, Jim E. van Steenbergen, Vincent Buskens, Peter. G.M. Van der Heijden, Carl E. Koppeschaar, Linus Bengtsson, Anna E. Thorson, Mirjam E.E. Kretschmar: Enhancing syndromic surveillance with an on-line respondent-driven method. Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print June 11, 2015: e1–e8. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2015.302717.

Sander P. van Noort, Cláudia T. Codeço, Carl E. Koppeschaar, Marc van Ranst, Daniela Paolotti, M. Gabriela M. Gomes: Ten-year performance of Influenzanet: ILI time series, risks, and vaccine effects in the Grote Griepmeting, Gripenet, and Influweb cohorts. Epidemics, 15 June 2015, doi:10.1016/j.epidem.2015.05.001.

Anne M. Land-Zandstra, Mara M. van Beusekom, Carl E. Koppeschaar, Jos M. van den Broek: Motivation and Learning Impact of Dutch Flu-Trackers. Journal of Science Communication, 15 (01) (2016) A04.

Mart L. Steijn, Peter. G.M. Van der Heijden, Vincent Buskens, Jim E. van Steenbergen, Linus Bengtson, Carl E. Koppeschaar, Anna Thorson, Mirjam E.E. Kretschmar: Studying social contact networks using on-line respondent-driven sampling: Who recruits whom? BMC Infectious Diseases 2015 15:522, doi: 10.1186/s12879-015-1250-z

Kemmeren J, Honsbeek M, Dijkstra F, De Lange MMA, Van der Maas N., Smallenburg R, Van Noort S, Koppeschaar C, Van der Hoek W: Comparison of different approaches of the collection of reported adverse events following pandemic influenza vaccination in the Netherlands in 2009/2010. Vaccine 34 (2016) 3961–3966.

Caroline Guerrisi, Clément Turbelin, Thierry Blanchon, Thomas Hanslik, Isabelle Bonmarin, Daniel Levy-Bruhl, Daniela Perrotta, Daniela Paolotti, Ronald Smallenburg, Carl Koppeschaar, Ricardo Mexia, John Edmunds, Bersabeh Sile, Sandro Meloni, Yamir Moreno, Jim Duggan, Charlotte Kjelso, Vittoria Colizza: Participatory syndromic surveillance of influenza in Europe. J Infect Dis. (2016) 214 (suppl 4): S386-S392. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiw280

Carl E. Koppeschaar, Vittoria Colizza, Caroline Guerrisi, Clément Turbelin, Jim Duggan, W. John Edmunds, Charlotte Kjelsø, Ricardo Mexia, Yamir Moreno, Sandro Meloni, Daniela Paolotti, Daniela Perrotta, Edward van Straten, Ana O. Franco: INFLUENZANET: Citizens Among Ten Countries Collaborating to Monitor Influenza in Europe. Journal of Medical Internet Research. JMIR Public Health and Surveillance, Vol. 3 No. 3 (2017): Jul-Sept. doi: 10.2196/publichealth.7429.

A. C. Teirlinck, B. de Gier, A. Meijer, G. Donker, M. de Lange, C. Koppeschaar, W. van der Hoek, M. E. Kretzschmar, S. A. McDonald: The incidence of symptomatic infection with influenza virus in the Netherlands 2011/2012 through 2016/2017, estimated using Bayesian evidence synthesis. Epidemiol Infect. 2018 Oct 23;147:e30. doi: 10.1017/S095026881800273X.

Lester Darryl Geneviève, Andrea Martani, Tenzin Wangmo. Daniela Paolotti, Carl Koppeschaar; Charlotte Kjelso, Caroline Guerrisi, Ricardo Mexia, Olivia Woolley-Meza, Antoine Flahault, Bernice Simone Elger: Participatory Disease Surveillance Systems: Ethical Framework. J Med Internet Res. 2019 May 23;21(5):e12273. doi: 10.2196/12273.



Carl Koppeschaar summersaulting in weightlessness during test flights with the Zero-G, supervised by Dutch first astronaut late Wubbo Ockels.


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