Paul H.M. Savelkoul is head of the department medical microbiology of the Maastricht university medical center, Maastricht. He is appointed as a Professor of Medical Microbiology at the University Maastricht and at the VU University medical center, Amsterdam. He studied Medical Biology at the university of Utrecht and earned his PhD on adhesion factors of Bordetella in 1992 at the veterinary faculty, University of Utrecht.
His research expertise is focused on molecular diagnostics, detection and typing of pathogenic microbial species and molecular epidemiology. He has also been highly active in identifying risk factors contributing to pathogenic infections and in identifying and characterizing antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains, which are a serious concern for hospitals worldwide.
He belongs to several professional societies, including chairman of the European Study Group on Molecular Diagnostics (ESGMD) www.escmid.org and chairman of the Dutch Microbial typing section (KNVM) www.microtyping.nl
He has published more than 125 peer reviewed papers, 7 book chapters and filed a number of patents. In addition, he is one of the founders of the medical molecular microbiologist education program, organiser of several postgraduate courses and currently a tutor for the medical molecular microbiologist specialisation. He is also founder and director of several university spin off companies including Microbiome Ltd. In 2012 he was awarded as the second best ‘Most Entrepreneurial Scientist’ of the Netherlands.