Portrait
59
Pol Rommens
Portrait The AO should be grateful to have Dr Stefaan Nijs as one of their most active and engaged members of the young generation.
Fig 1 Stefaan Nijs, MD.
Fig 2 Stefaan and son, Jul.
Stefaan was born in Belgium on May 11, 1969, is married to Ilse Pauwels, and is father of three sons: Jef, Lowie, and Jul. Stefaan studied medicine at the Catholic University of Leuven between 1987 and 1994. He then trained as a general surgeon at the University Hospital Gasthuisberg of the same University between 1994 and 2000. Between 2000 and 2001, Stefaan was resident at the Department of Trauma Surgery at the University Hospital of the Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany. He returned to Leuven in 2001 to become a staff member of the Department of Trauma Surgery. He was supervisor till 2003 and has been adjunct Head of Department since then. In 2003 he successfully completed a postgraduate study of hospital management. Stefaan successfully defended his doctoral thesis on “The rotator cuff insufficient shoulder in trauma patients” in February 2010. Stefaan’s favorite hobbies are watching premier league football with his sons and listening to heavy metal music. Stefaan started a national and international career early in service for trauma care. He began his “AO career” with the basic course in Bochum in 1998, the advanced course in Davos in the same year, and the course for peripheral osteosyntheses in Oberdorf in 2001. He became the second President of the Belgian Trauma Society in 1997, and national delegate for Belgium in the European Society for Trauma and Emergency Surgery (ESTES), and its Congress President in Brussels, in May 2010. His special professional interest is in shoulder and elbow surgery. In recent years Stefaan has organized an anatomical specimen workshop on approaches in shoulder and elbow trauma surgery in cooperation with the Institute of Anatomy at his University. He has given more than 500 presentations of which more than 300 have been at international congresses, workshops, and seminars. In 2006 he was awarded a research grant from the Robert Mathys Foundation for his project “Biomechanical evaluation of stability of different systems for tuberosity fixation in fracture shoulder arthroplasty”. He was involved in several AO development projects, such as the dynamic hip screw blade and the X-mas tree humeral nail. Stefaan is clever, adroit, and a particularly indefatigable surgeon and teacher. He is a humble and honest person with a critical, experienced view on problems of the care of our injured patients. With his thorough analyses, Stefaan is an opinion leader in the field of trauma care in upper extremity surgery. Whenever you meet him on one of his trips, you will hear an experienced and engaged surgical speaker with considered and elaborated views on actual problems in trauma care. With his driven lectures, surgery, and clinical research, Stefaan thoroughly supports AO in its core activities. We are very glad to have him as a member of our AO family!