vst ::: biography :: professor maria e. everts

Department of Anatomy and Physiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University,
PO Box 80157, 3508 TD Utrecht, The Netherlands m.everts@vet.uu.nl

Professor Everts graduated from the University of Amsterdam in 1979 with a degree in Biology. Her major subject was Zoology and her subsidiary ones were Immunology and Biochemistry. She went on to do a PhD in the Department of Chemical Pathology at the University of Leiden's Medical Centre, The Netherlands. In 1983, she completed her thesis, entitled "Effects of the thyroid state on force development and metabolism in skeletal muscle of the rat".

She spent a further year at Leiden University to continue her studies, but was then invited to the Institute of Human Physiology, University of Pavia, Italy, to spend a brief period participating in a project that looked at the effects of thyroid hormone on the contractility of the heart. From Italy, she moved to Denmark where she was a visiting scientist at the Institute of Physiology, University of Aarhus. Here she looked at the effects of thyroid hormone on the sodium-potassium (Na⁺,K⁺) pump, the calcium pump and cation fluxes and force development of skeletal muscle. In 1989, the Institute made her Assistant Professor and her research work now looked at the role of the Na⁺,K⁺ pump in the development of muscle fatigue.

Professor Everts was awarded a number of research grants to support her work in Denmark, including ones from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research, the International Federation of University Women (Switzerland), the Danish Medical Research Council (Aarhus University) and the Danish Biomembrane Research Centre (Denmark).

In 1991, she returned to her place of birth, The Netherlands. For five years she held the position of Senior Research Fellow at the Department of Internal Medicine, Erasmus University Medical School, Rotterdam, during which time she looked at the regulation of thyroid hormone uptake into the pituitary. Her fellowship was awarded by The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.

It was in 1996 that Professor Everts took up the position she holds currently, that of Professor of Veterinary Physiology and Head of the Division of Physiology, Department of Veterinary Anatomy and Physiology, at Utrecht University's Faculty of Veterinary Medicine.