Joep Derikx earned his Ph.D. on ‘(Patho)physiology of gut wall integrity in health and disease in man’ cum laude in 2009 at the University of Maastricht, supervised by Prof. Dr. W.A. Buurman and Prof. Dr. E. Heineman. He was trained as a general and pediatric surgeon in Sittard and Maastricht from 2008-2014 and as a pediatric surgeon in Amsterdam from 2015-2016. Since then he has been a clinical staff member and principal investigator at the Department of Pediatric Surgery of Emma children’s hospital in Amsterdam. His research aims to unravel mechanisms underlying necrotizing enterocolitis, intestinal ischemia, and intestinal anastomotic healing and leakage. This part occurs at the Tytgat Institute Amsterdam, headed by Prof. W.J. de Jonge. Furthermore, he studies potential new markers for early diagnosis of intestinal damage. Last he studies the pathology and complications of Hirschsprung disease. He was awarded the Pélerin-price of the Maastricht University Medical Centre for the best young researcher, with the career development grant of the Dutch Gastroenterology and Hepatology Society and he is a VIDI-laureate of the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw). He is the supervisor of fourteen PhD-students and four post-docs.