Jan van Gijn was Professor and Chairman of the Department of Neurology at Utrecht University Medical Centre, from 1983 to 2007. From 1996 to 2008 he was also Editor of the Dutch Journal of Medicine (Nederlands Tijdschrift voor Geneeskunde). He was Joint Chief Editor of the Journal of Neurology (1994-2001) and Associate Editor of Brain (2004-2014). He (co)authored around 400 original articles and reviews in peer-reviewed international journals, over 50 book chapters and 9 books, all mainly about cerebrovascular disease. He has been elected as a member of the Royal Dutch Academy of Arts and Sciences.