Dr Paul Fockens (b. 1958) has been appointed professor of Gastrointestinal Endoscopy at the Faculty of Medicine of the Universiteit van Amsterdam (AMC-UvA).

Paul Fockens is doctor in gastroenterology and hepatology, and his professional career largely focuses on flexible endoscopy (inspecting stomach and intestines using an endoscope). This partly involves early diagnosis of malignant tumors and their predecessors, in which Fockens searches for new image representing techniques by using several interactions between light and tissue. Fockens’ research interests also lie in endoscopic therapy for late stages of malignant tumors, in which for example new endoscopic methods for removing obstructoins are compared to the current standard treatment.

Endoscopic surgery is a new area for Fockens and the Academic Medical Center (AMC-UvA). Fockens is internationally well known because of his participation in postgraduate training worldwide; besides, he organises such courses himself in the Netherlands. He is fomer president of the Dutch Society of specialists in gastroenterology and hepatology (Nederlands Genootschap van Maag-Darm-Leverartsen) and is president of the European Postgraduate Gastro-Surgical School. During the past years he was president of the teaching institute of Medical Informatics of the UvA and as such he was responsible for the introduction of the bachelor’s-master’s structure.

Fockens has been working at the AMC as academic specialist and senior university lecturer in the department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology since 1992. He has been director of the department of Endoscopy since 1999. Fockens is furthermore member of the international editorial board of the journal Gastrointestinal Endoscopy and co-editor of the journal Endoscopy.