Celebrations to mark the retirement of Joost Schalkwijk

21 February 2019

With a mini symposium (‘Oppervlakkig en toch diepgaand’) and reception a passionate researcher of the RIMLS said farewell. After 36 working years Joost Schalkwijk, theme Inflammatory diseases, will enjoy his retirement.

Joost Schalkwijk was educated at the Radboud University and the University of Leiden, and was awarded his Master of Science degree in 1982. He did his PhD studies in experimental rheumatology (thesis defense in 1986) and started as a principal investigator at the department of Dermatology at the Radboudumc in 1988. Since 2003 he is professor of Experimental Dermatology.

His main interest was in keratinocyte biology and inflammatory skin diseases such as psoriasis and atopic dermatitis. His group aimed to translate basic science to applications in the treatment of human diseases. In addition, he also performed research outside the Dermatology field. In addition to topics such as connective tissue diseases and malaria, Joost has always embraced new techniques. His department was the first in The Netherlands to do serial analysis of gene expression and made a "skin chip". In Europe he was also the first to publish about the human skin microbiome.

In all those years, Joost has contributed to more than 300 scientific publications in many different professional journals with a broad spectrum of subjects, including some publications in high impact journals such as Nature Genetics and The New England Journal of Medicine. Furthermore his oeuvre is mainly characterized by many publications in well-quoted journals that are known for their solid research, such as The Journal of Biological Chemistry, The Journal of Clinical Investigation, The American Journal of Human Genetics and The Journal of Investigative Dermatology.

Joost has made significant contributions to the further development of the RIMLS by being instrumental as coach in the grant writing process of ample researchers, and he has been an active member of several committees and contributed to the MMD programme.

We thank Joost wholeheartedly for his seminal contributions to science and education, and his dedication to the local, national and international academic community. We wish him all the best for the future to come.


Joost  at the mini symposium on 15 February 2019. His own lecture was about research outside the Dermatology field: the importance of non-project-related research.


 

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