Piet Borst

Piet Borst MD PhD (born 5 July 1934, Amsterdam) is emeritus professor of Clinical Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the University of Amsterdam (UVA), and the former Director of Research and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Netherlands Cancer Institute and the Antoni van Leeuwenhoekziekenhuis (NKI-AVL), where he still works as staff member.

Career

Piet Borst studied medicine in Amsterdam from 1952 to 1958 and completed his internships in 1961-1962. He received his PhD for an investigation of tumor mitochondria (Supervisor E.C. Slater).

He then moved to New York City where he worked with post-doc and friend Charles Weissmann on replication of bacteriophages in the lab of Nobel laureate Severo Ochoa.

In 1965, he became professor of Biochemistry at the University of Amsterdam (UvA) and head of the section for Medical Enzymology of the Amsterdam Biochemistry Department.

From 1966 Borst was also head of the Department of Medical Enzymology and Molecular Biology, a separate part of the large Department of Biochemistry, which was housed in the Wilhelmina Hospital grounds in the then Jan Swammerdam Institute, where he also was a time director.

From 1972 to 1980 Borst was also part-time Director of the Institute of Animal Physiology of the University of Amsterdam where he set up the first Unit for Molecular Biology on the Biology Campus.

Editorial Boards

• 1972-1982 Editor Biochimica et Biophysica Acta
• 1978-1983 Editor Plasmid
• 1979-1988 Advisory Editor International Review of Cytology
• 1980-heden Advisory Editor Laboratory Techniques in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology
• 1981-1983 Editor EMBO Journal
• 1982-1987 Managing Editor Biochimica et Biophysica Acta
• 1983-1988 Associate Editor of Cell
• 1985-2010 Editor Trends in Genetics
• 1986-1988 Member Editorial Board of Nucleic Acids Research
• 1986-2007 Member Editorial Board of Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology
• 1989-1992 Editor The New Biologist
• 1990-2009 Member Editorial Board Current Opinion in Genetics and Development
• 1990-1995 Advisory Editor European Journal of Cancer
• 1993-1999 Member Board of Reviewing Editors Science
• 1993-1996 Member Editorial Board The Faseb Journal
• 1997-heden Member Editorial Board Drug Resistance Updates
• 1999-2010 Member Genome Biology Advisory Board.
• 2000-2004 Member Editorial Board Proc. Natl. Academy of Sciences, USA

Major International Organisational Functions

• 1978 – 1984 Elected member EMBO Council (1982 – 1984 vice-president)
• 1985 – 1991 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the EMBL in Heidelberg, Germany. (1988 – 1991 President)
• 1986 – 1990 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Basel Institute for Immunology, Switzerland
• 1986 – 1993 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Institute of Molecular Pathology, Vienna, Austria
• 1991 – 2004 Member of the Scientific Committee of the Foundation Louis Jeantet, Genève, de jury of the Louis Jeantet Prize (since 1997 President of the jury), Switzerland
• 1992 – 1998 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Swiss Institute for Experimental Cancer Research (ISREC), Lausanne, Switzerland
• 1994 – 2000 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Londen, GB
• 1999 – 2005 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Zentrum für Molekulare Biologie, Heidelberg, Germany
• 2000 – 2005 Member of the External Scientific and Strategic Committee (CEOSS) of the Pasteur Institute, Paris, France (since 2004 also chairman)
• 2000 – 2006 Commissaris Schering A.G. Berlin, Germany
• 2004 – 2008 Chairman of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Fritz-Lipmann Institut, Jena, Germany
• 2005 – 2012 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Londen Research Institute
• 2005 – 2012 Member of the Board of Scientific Governors of The Scripps Research Institute, USA
• 2013 – 2016 Member of the Scientific Advisory Board of the European Research Institute for the Biology of Ageing (ERIBA), Groningen, The Netherlands

Royal Distinctions

• 1999 Commandeur in de Orde van de Nederlandse Leeuw
• 2007 Honorary Foreign Commander of the British Empire (CBE)

Scientific Awards

• 1981 Royal Dutch/Shell-prize for the Life Sciences (Netherlands)
• 1984 Paul-Ehrlich und Ludwig-Darmstaedter Prize, Germany (shared with Prof. George Cross)
• 1984 F.M.V.V. Prize of the Dutch Federation of Medical Scientific Societies
• 1989 Howard Taylor Ricketts Award of the University of Chicago, USA
• 1990 Dr. G. Wander award of the Wander Foundation in Bern, Switzerland
• 1990 Gold medal of the Genootschap voor Natuur-, Genees- en Heelkunde in Amsterdam
• 1992 Dr. H.P. Heineken prize for biochemistry and biophysics of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences
• 1992 Gold medal of the Robert Koch Foundation in Cologne, Germany
• 1993 Prof.dr P. Muntendam prize of the Dutch Cancer Society
• 1999 Silver Medal of merit of the City of Amsterdam
• 1999 Medal of the University of Amsterdam for exceptional contributions to the university
• 2000 Hamilton Fairley Award for Clinical Research, European Society for Medical Oncology, Hamburg.
• 2007 The distinguished Service Award, awarded at the Miami Nature Biotechnology Winter Symposium, Miami Beach, Florida, USA.
• 2010 Gebroeders Bruinsma Erepenning van de Nederlandse Vereniging tegen de Kwakzalverij, Amsterdam.

Membership of Academics

• 1978 De Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie voor Wetenschappen
• 1983 De Hollandsche Maatschappij der Wetenschappen
• 1986 Foreign Member of the Royal Society of Great Brittain
• 1989 Academia Europaea
• 1991 Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, USA
• 1995 Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, USA
• 2009 Fellow of the European Academy of Cancer Sciences

References

• Curriculum vitae
• Biography at the KNAW website.