Dr. Hidde Ploegh is an immunologist at Boston Children’s Hospital. His love for immunology began when he was an undergraduate at the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. As a student, he wrote a letter to renowned immunologist Jon van Rood but never heard back. However, as an undergraduate researcher, he had an opportunity to work with Dr. Jack Strominger at Harvard University for 6 months. The experience was so great that after earning a BS and Masters in Biology and Chemistry from the University of Groningen, he returned to Strominger’s lab for his graduate studies. Ironically, his thesis committee chair ended up being Jon van Rood. Ploegh ultimately received his PhD from Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Following graduate school, Ploegh was highly sought after by several institutions. Fresh from his PhD, Ploegh was first offered a position as a junior group leader in immunology at the University of Cologne, Germany in 1980. Since then, he has worked at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Harvard Medical School and most recently, the Whitehead Institute. His accolades, in addition to prestigious awards, include induction into the European Molecular Biology Organization (1986), the American Academy of Arts and Science (2002) and the National Academy of Sciences (2012). He has contributed to over 500 papers.
Learn more about his lab and research here.
