Tessa Roseboom is professor of Early Development and Health and Future Generations Commissioner of AmsterdamUMC. She is fascinated by how human beings are shaped by the environment in which they develop. Her studies of babies who were born around the time of the Dutch famine provided the first human evidence that exposures before birth affect people’s ability to develop to their full potential. Such effects transmitted across generations. Realizing that unborn generations are unseen, unheard and unprotected, fueled her drive to translate scientific insights into impact. She is a passionate advocate for future generations and works with organisations to translate science into policy and practice for the health of people and planet, now and in the future.