Summary
Vincent Van Hees is an independent consultant and founder with 11 years of experience building and maintaining research-grade software for wearable movement and sleep data. He created and still actively maintains GGIR, an influential open-source R package used globally in large cohorts such as UK Biobank and Pelotas, and has processed multi-terabyte datasets (27 TB) for national studies. His work blends epidemiology (PhD, Cambridge) and software engineering to deliver scalable, validated pipelines and user-friendly tools like HabitusGUI and hbGPS/hbGIS that dramatically improved performance and usability. He has led quality assurance and cluster-scale deployments for national cohorts, secured external funding for research software projects, and taught an online GGIR training course. Vincent’s uncommon pairing of deep domain knowledge and hands-on code modernization (e.g., extracting C++ into GGIRread) lets him turn legacy research code into sustainable, high-performance tools. Based in the Netherlands, he specialises in turning complex sensor data into reproducible, publishable insights for academic and industry partners.
11 years of coding experience
10 years of employment as a software developer
Master of Science - MSc, Human Movement Sciences, Cum Laude, Master of Science - MSc, Human Movement Sciences, Cum Laude at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam
PhD, Epidemiology, PhD, Epidemiology at University of Cambridge
Bachelor of Engineering - BE, Human Kinetic Technology, Bachelor of Engineering - BE, Human Kinetic Technology at De Haagse Hogeschool / The Hague University of Applied Sciences