Rob de Boer

Rob J. de Boer is a Professor of Theoretical Biology at Utrecht University, where he directs PhD programs in computational and quantitative biology.  His research focusses on the immune system, which is a fascinating complex system taking decisions on how to respond to a wide variety of stimuli, varying from lethal pathogens to harmless proteins in the food. Decisions are remembered for life in the form of immunological memory.

He received his Ph.D. on Theoretical Immunology from Paulien Hogeweg at Utrecht University in 1989. After his Ph.D. he did a postdoc with Alan Perelson at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL), with whom he continued to collaborate by visiting the Santa Fe Institute and LANL at least every summer. In 1991 he returned to Utrecht University to become a staff member, and later group leader of the Theoretical Biology group.

He is the author of more than 200 publications (with an H-index of 46). He was awarded the prestigious NWO Vici award for research in Theoretical Immunology in 2004 and is Deputy editor of PLOS Computational Biology. He has been on the external faculty of the Santa Fe Institute since 1992. He teaches courses on Theoretical Biology at Utrecht University, and on Theoretical Immunology at various international summer and winter schools. See http://theory.bio.uu.nl/rdb for further information.