CV Dr. R.H.A. (Ronald) Plasterk

Ronald Hans Anton (Ronald) Plasterk studied Biology at Leiden University, graduating in 1981. He pursued his PhD in molecular genetics in Leiden, followed by a postdoc at the California Institute of Technogoly in Pasadena (US). In both, his research focused on Transposon sequences in DNA. He did another postdoc at MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge (UK) working on C. elegans.

From 1987 to 2000 he was a group leader at the Dutch Cancer Institute (NKI)/Anthonie van Leeuwenhoek Hospital in Amsterdam. In 2000 he became director of the Hubrecht Laboratory/Dutch institute of developmental biology in Utrecht. From 1993 to 1997 mister Plasterk was endowed professor of Molecular Biology at VU University Amsterdam, followed by a professorship in Molecular Genetics at the University of Amsterdam. In 2000 he was named professor of Developmental Genetics at the University of Utrecht.

Mister Plasterk is a member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). In the past he was a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO), member of the Board of Governors of The Wellcome Trust (WT) and a member of the Health Council. He was also an advisor to the National Convention, and columnist for daily paper The Volkskrant and the TV program Het Buitenhof.

In 2007 mister Plasterk became Minister of Education, Culture and Science for the labour partij (PvdA) in the cabinet Balkenende IV. This cabinet fell in February 2010.