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Professor Henk P. Haagsman
Department of the Science of Food of Animal Origin, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, PO Box 80.175, NL-3508 TD, Utrecht, The Netherlands H.P.Haagsman@vvdo.vet.uu.nl

Henk Haagsman graduated from Utrecht University in 1978 with a degree in chemistry. His major subject was biochemistry (at the Faculty of Chemistry), his sub-speciality what was then called "physiological chemistry" (at the Faculty of Medicine). He started his PhD track at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, where he investigated the regulation of the synthesis and secretion of triacylglycerols by isolated hepatocytes. This work was supported by a grant from the Netherlands Foundation for Chemical research and was carried out at the Laboratory of Veterinary Biochemistry, under the supervision of Professor L.M.G. van Golde.

As a postdoc he shifted his attention to pulmonary surfactants and examined mechanisms that cause their alteration in toxic and diseased states, using isolated type II pneumocytes. This work was supported by a grant from the Netherlands Asthma Foundation. In 1985 he was the recipient of the Constantijn en Christiaan Huygens Award, a prize awarded by the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and intended to keep outstanding scientists in academia. It is given to only few biochemists, to enable them to do research and to teach for five years at a university of their choice.

From 1986 to 1988 Henk Haagsman worked as a visiting scientist at the Cardiovascular Research Institute, Faculty of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco. Here he started his work on the structure and function of pulmonary surfactant proteins in the laboratory of Professors S. Hawgood and J.A. Clements. After his return he continued with biophysical to immunological studies of the pulmonary surfactant system, which have resulted in more than 80 scientific papers.

In 1998 Hank Haagsman was appointed Professor of Meat Science at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Utrecht University. His current research topics are entitled "Regulation of proteolytic systems in muscle cells" and "Innate mucosal defence systems of the gastro-intestinal tract".