Dr. Jan Hesselink

Biography

Jan Willem Hesselink is a professor in top referral health care of companion animals at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Utrecht University. He obtained his Doctor of Veterinary Medicine degree from the University of Utrecht in 1980, followed by military service as a lieutenant veterinary surgeon and epidemiologist in the Dutch Army Services. He then worked for three years as a veterinary practitioner in the Dutch Antilles, before spending 14 years at Veterinary Clinic Marum in the northern Netherlands. During his career, he transformed his general practice into a specialization focused on reproduction, emphasizing the practical applications of ultrasonography in the female reproductive tract of horses and ruminants. Hesselink completed his PhD on pseudopregnancy in goats in 1994, later serving as president of the Northern Department of the Royal Dutch Veterinary Association in the late 1990s. He became a board-certified equine reproduction specialist in 1998 and a founding diplomate of the European College of Animal Reproduction in 2000. Hesselink joined the University Medical Center Groningen in 2001, where he contributed significantly to the Department of Surgery and co-founded the BioOptical Imaging Center Groningen. He became an associate professor in 2006 and managing director of the UMCG Cancer Program. In 2011, he was appointed clinic director and professor at Utrecht University and has supervised numerous PhD students while publishing over 50 papers in international peer-reviewed journals.

Research Interests

Experience