My life in a shell
I was born on January 9, 1966 in Bourtange (Vlagtwedde), a little village in the north of the Netherlands. Just about two years later we moved to Steenwijk where I grew up. From 1972 until 1978 I visited the Johan Frisoschool in Steenwijk. Afterwards, from 1978 - 1984 I went to the Rijksscholengemeenschap Steenwijk to the HAVO. After I finished the HAVO I went in autumn 1984 to Emmen (not to be confused with the Swiss municipality with the same name) to study at the Hogeschool Drenthe. This is an institute for higher vocational education, where I obtained a B.Sc. degree in (analytical) chemistry in 1990. During this period at the Hogeschool Drenthe I had the opportinity to perform a training period (January 1989 until July 1989) at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot (Israel) in the Department of Biochemistry. Since this training period was an extremely nice experience and very beneficial for my studies I decided to go back to the Weizmann Institute to obtain a M.Sc. degree in the Life Sciences afterwards. So I lived from August 1990 until March 1993 in Rehovot again, however, with some short interruptions in the Netherlands. After completing my studies I returned to the Netherlands and got a position as technical assistant at the Netherlands Cancer Institute and Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam. So from September 1993 until September 1995 I was living and working in Amsterdam. Still having plans to do a Ph.D. and having contacts in Zürich (Switzerland) I decided to make the move abroad again. From October 1995 until December 1998 I worked as a Ph.D. student at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in the Instute for Biochemistry in Zürich. In December 1998 I obtained my Ph.D. in the Natural Sciences and since 1999, first as a post-doc, than as Research Investigator, I live and work at Novartis, a Swiss pharmaceutical company, located in Basel. A special page with more detailed information about Living in Switzerland is available.
Timeline
(see My publications for more details about my profession)
1999 - present:
Novartis Pharma AG, Basel, Switzerland
Currently, I work as Research Investigator II at Novartis (Novartis Institutes for BioMedical Research) and in that function responsible for some of the proteomic activities in the company. Here you can find an introduction into proteomics.
1995 - 1998:
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zürich, Switzerland
Ph.D. in Natural Sciences under supervision of Prof. Dr. Ernesto Carafoli with final dissertation on "A novel method for N-terminal ladder sequencing and subtractive proteome analysis of oocytes from Asterina pectinifera after resumption of meiosis". Prof. Dr. Josef Brunner and Prof. Dr. Peter James acted as co-promotor on this thesis.
1993-1995:
The Netherlands Cancer Institute/AvL and Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Technical assistant under supervision of Prof. Dr. Hans V. Westerhoff with project on "Quantitative analysis of the control and regulation of the glutamine synthetase cascade in Escherichia coli".
1990-1993:
The Feinberg Graduate School of The Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel
M.Sc. in Life Sciences under supervision of Prof. Dr. Steven J.D. Karlish with final thesis on "Characterization of isothiouronium derivatives as high affinity cation analogues for the Na,K-ATPase".
1989-1990:
University of Nijmegen, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
Final bench training period under supervision of Prof. Dr. Jan Joep H.H.M. De Pont with project on "Stimulatie van de ATP-fosforylering van het H,K-ATPase door vrije vetzuren en detergentia".
1984-1990:
Hogeschool Drenthe, Emmen, The Netherlands
Higher Laboratory Education
1978-1984:
Rijksscholengemeenschap, Steenwijk, The Netherlands
HAVO
1972-1978:
Johan Frisoschool, Steenwijk, The Netherlands
