Dr B.J.A. Janssen

Ben Janssen was born in Sittard, The Netherlands in 1958. After finishing his masters in Biology (1983, Nijmegen University, NL), he was trained in Pharmacology at the Maastricht University, NL.

He received his PhD for a thesis on sensory renal nerves and hyp­erten­sion (1988). In 2003 he was appointed associate professor at the department of Pharmacology & Toxicology of the UM. Since then he is a full member of the staff and specialized in hypothesis testing of cardiovascular research questions in vivo in experimental animals. He has (co)authored more than 150 research publications in this research field, which can be viewed here.

Ben Janssen supervises the pharmacology/pharmacotherapy teaching programs in the faculty of health, life sciences and medicine of Maastricht University and serves as a teaching representative of the Maastricht University as well as for the Dutch Pharmacological Society on several national educational initiatives. For his contribution to education he received the Maastricht University Wynand Wijnen teaching award (2021).

In 2019 he started a new research line into the potential ecotoxic effects of medicinal waste products present in wastewaters of hospitals and surface waters. In collaboration with the Maastricht University Medical Center, several regional and national water authorities, and national research institutes, he tries to answer the question how health care institutions can reduce, in the most optimal way, the emission of hospital selective medicines to the aquatic environment. He is also involved in initiatives to improve education of health care workers on “greener” prescribing and develops tools for this in e-learning platforms such as Pscribe.