Henrik C. Wegener is a Master of Food Science and a Ph.D. in Microbiology from the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University in Copenhagen . He has been involved in food safety research since 1987. Initially HCW worked as a molecular epidemiologist in the laboratory, then for ten years he headed surveillance and epidemiological research activities on zoonoses at the Danish Institute for Food and Veterinary Research (DFVF). He has led the successful establishment of the interagency unit the Danish Zoonosis Centre from 1994.

From 2004 he was head of the Department of Epidemiology and Risk Assessment, and since 2006 he has been the director of the institute (Currently named National Food Institute), with a staff of 125 scientists. He is Adjunct Professor of Zoonoses Epidemiology at the Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University , in Copenhagen , Head of World Health Organization Collaborating Centre on Antimicrobial Resistance in Foodborne Pathogens and Coordinator of the EU Marie Curie Early Stage Training Programme – “Training Risk Assessment in Non-human Antimicrobial Usage”. In collaboration with WHO and Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta he is involved in the development of a global foodborne disease and antimicrobial resistance surveillance network (WHO-GSS).

Henrik C. Wegener has received the Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics – International Leadership Award to Preserve the Power of Antibiotics. He is an associate editor of the Journal Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal, and has published more than 100 scientific papers and book chapters and more than 150 other publications. HCW has participated in numerous national and international committees and currently sits on the advisory board for the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).