Cornelis J.H. van de Velde MD, PhD, FRCPS(hon), FACS(hon)

Cornelis Jan Hadde van de Velde was born in 1951 and carried out his medical studies in 1975 at the University of Leiden (The Netherlands), completing his Ph.D. Thesis on Model Studies on Breast Cancer Treatment in 1977 Cum Laude. In 1980 he was a Fellow at the M.D.Anderson Hospital in Houston, Depart­ment of Surgery (USA) and registered as a general surgeon in 1982.

He was Visiting Professor at the Seoul National University Hospital, Korea and National Cancer Center Hospital, Tokyo, Japan in 1985 and returned to the University of Leiden two years later as Associate Professor of Surgery, Deputy Tutor. He was appointed as Full Clinical Professor of Surgery and Chairman of the Department of Surgical Oncology, the Leiden University Medical Center in 1988 and became Deputy Chairman, the Division of Surgery in 1991 and Tutor, the Association of Surgeons of the Netherlands in 1988. 

From 2008 to 2010, he was President of the European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO), and in 2010 was elected President-Elect of ECCO – the European CanCer Organisation.

In the year 2000 he was appointed Member of the "Royal Academy of Sciences of the Netherlands "(KNAW Koninklijke Nederlandse Academie van Wetenschappen) and since 2004 has served as President of the Medical Section. 

As of 2006 he has been President Elect of the European Society of Surgical Oncology (ESSO), and in 2008 became Board Member of ECCO – the European CanCer Organisation. He is Coordinator of Oncology at the Leiden University Medical Center and Member of a number of committees at Leiden University Medical Center.

He has published over 500 papers in journals of the highest prestige and his areas of clinical and research interest surround breast, colorectal, gastric cancer; endocrine tumours. Throughout his career his work has been recognised through countless awards, prizes and honours. Most recently, he has Honorary Membership to the British Association of Surgical Oncology, is an Honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons­ of Glasgow, Honorary member of the Colombian andChilean Surgical Society, the Royal Austral Asian Surgical Society as well as the Belgian Oncological Society. In 2001 he was the recipient of the Federation of European Cancer Society (FECS) Award (Lisbon, Portugal – ECCO), elected Honorary Fellow Dutch Society for Surgical Oncology, received the Gold Medal of the Association of Surgeons and Physicians of the Netherlands as well as the National Oncology Prize of the Dutch Cancer Foundation.

C.J.H van de Velde has also served several organisations, universities and scientific publications and committees through Board memberships. Just some of his current commitments include Associate Editor of the European Journal of Surgical Oncology,  Founder and chairman of the Dutch Colorectal Cancer Group and Dutch Breast Group, Associate Editor and Founder of the European Journal of Surgery, Editor in Chief and Founder of het Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Heel­kunde, Honorary Editorial Member of Evidence-based Surgery, Council Member of the British Journal of Surgery,and Member of the Editorial Board of the Japane­se Journal of Oncology, Hepato Gastroenterology, Journal of Regional Cancer Treat­ment, Gastric Cancer, Annals of SurgicalOncology, Quarterly Journal of Surgical Sciences, Scandinavian Journal of Surgery, Nowotwory Journal of Oncology, andActa Oncologica.