Endocrine Abstracts

Wilmar M Wiersinga, Department of Endocrinology and Metabolism, Academic Medical Centre, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands Abstract

Wilmar M Wiersinga was born in Leiden in 1942. After finishing his medical studies in 1969 he obtained his Board Certification of Internal Medicine in 1976. He subspecialised in endocrinology, and defended his PhD thesis in 1979 at the University of Amsterdam on the topic “The peripheral conversion of T4 into T3 and reverse T3” (cum laude). He worked as a research fellow in 1979–1980 with Professors Inder Chopra and David Solomon at the University of California at Los Angeles. After returning to Amsterdam, he continued doing basic and clinical research studies in the thyroid field, besides teaching and patient care.

He was appointed Professor of Endocrinology in 1991, and acts as chairman of the Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism at the Academic Medical Center as of 1995.

He has been past president of the Dutch Endocrine Society, member of the Dutch Medical Research Board (Gebiedsbestuur MW-NWO), member of the Executive Committee of the European Thyroid Association (ETA), and member of the Executive Committee of the European Federation of Endocrine Societies (EFES).

He organised several international thyroid symposia in Amsterdam, as well as the EFES congress in 1994 and the ETA congress in 1996. He was chair of the Program Organising Committee of the 6th European Congress of Endocrinology in April 2003 in Lyon. Presently he serves as president of the European Thyroid Association.