Prof. Peter J. Blankestijn, MD, PhD
Prof. Peter J. Blankestijn completed his medical education and training in Internal Medicine at Erasmus University and Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam. He subsequently served as a nephrologist at the Department of Nephrology and Hypertension, University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU), The Netherlands. He retired from clinical practice in 2023 but remains actively involved in clinical research.
He has served—and continues to serve—as principal investigator for several large multicenter clinical studies, including SMASH, MASTERPLAN, CONTRAST, SYMPATHY, and CONVINCE. Prof. Blankestijn has received multiple competitive research grants from the Dutch Kidney Foundation, Netherlands Heart Foundation, and The Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development (ZonMw), in addition to funding from pharmaceutical, dialysis, and medical device industries. Notably, he secured a major Horizon 2020 grant from the European Commission as Chair of the CONVINCE Consortium.
Prof. Blankestijn is the author or co-author of more than 400 peer-reviewed scientific publications. He has held numerous leadership roles on institutional, national, and international committees and boards. Within the European Renal Association (ERA), he served as a Council member (2010–2013 and 2017–2020) and was Chair of the Working Group on Dialysis Therapy (EuDial) from 2012 to 2017, in addition to contributing to several other ERA committees.
Since 2017–2018, Prof. Blankestijn has been actively engaged at both national and international levels in raising awareness of the relationship between climate change, environmental pollution, and health. He initiated the Green Initiative within the ERA, promoting sustainable healthcare practices. In 2020, he was awarded Green Health Care Professional of the Year by an independent jury in a national competition initiated by the Dutch government. In October 2021, he was awarded an Erasmus+ grant from the European Commission to lead an international consortium developing an educational platform on planetary health.
Prof. Blankestijn is a sought-after speaker on nephrology, cardiovascular medicine, and the environmental impact of healthcare, delivering lectures worldwide to medical professionals as well as to non-medical audiences, including policymakers and members of the European Parliament.
