Joris R. Vermeesch PhD

Joris R. Vermeesch, Ph.D. Ir, is professor Molecular Cytogenetics and genome research at the University of Leuven, is a faculty member of the European Genetics Foundation, is heading the Constitutional Cytogenetics unit of the Center of Human Genetics, Leuven, Belgium and coordinating the genomic core at the University Hospital. He graduated at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, the USA for his studies on telomere biochemistry.

Subsequently, he joined the Center of Human Genetics in Leuven, Belgium during which period he was mainly interested in the structure and evolution of telomeres and centromeres and the development of a human artificial chromosome. Before taking up his current position, he was head of the genomics unit in the basic research division of Aventis CropScience and responsible for large scale genome analyses in several crops.