Pieter Sonneveld - Biography#

Pieter Sonneveld, MD, Ph.D. was born in The Netherlands. He received his medical degree from the Erasmus University in Rotterdam, The Netherlands in 1977. In 1980 he completed his Ph.D. thesis on the pharmacology of Adria­ mycin in Acute Leukemia at the University of Leiden (DW van Bekkum & HM Pinedo). He received a Fogarty Fellowship and worked for several years at the National Cancer Institute, Bethesda, USA. He is a certified Hematologist and works at the Erasmus MC University Cancer Institute where he chairs the Myeloma study group and laboratory.

His special interest is focused on Multiple Myeloma and related diseases.

He is past-chairman of the HOVON Myeloma Working Group and he coordinates HOVON and EMN clinical trials for multiple myeloma. Dr. Sonneveld was a founder of the European Myeloma Network EMN and has been its chairman since 2005. Currently he serves a the president of the Board of EMN. Within EMN, he coordinates an international cooperative network for university-based clinical trials in Europe Asia and US, and initiates efforts to create international standards for diagnostics and patient care. EMN has conducted 41 international trials, several of which are independent registration trials for novel treatments. Currently he actively pursues studies of new targeted immune therapies in Myeloma. He developed an unique structure of the EMN collaboration wof more than 180 academic institutions for immune-based registration trials in Myeloma. Within this structure EMN is the official sponsor and conducts registration trials under its own control. Recent trials include targeted monoclonal antibodies, bispecific antibodies and CAR T-cells in frontline treatment.

Dr Sonneveld has been president if the European Hematology Association 2017-2019 and chair of the Scientific Working Group Committee. He has chaired the Scientific Program Committee of the 19th EHA congress in Milan 2014 and of the EMN Myeloma meetings in 2018, 2020 and 2024. He has served as advisor of FDA and EMN

He serves on the Scientific Advisory Boards of the IMS and MMRF and is a board member of the International Myeloma Society. He has been a member of the Editorial Boards of Blood, Leukemia, Eur J Cancer and Haematologica and was a founding member of Hemasphere. Dr. Sonneveld has authored more than 730 peer reviewed scientific publications and several book chapters (H-factor 110).

In 2015 he was awarded the prestigious international Robert Kyle life time achievements Award in Multiple Myeloma. In 2019 he received the Hubertus Wald Award for Cancer Research from Germany, in 2022 the International Waldenström Lifetime Achievement Award and the Otto Kahler Award in 2025. For his contributions he was appointed Officer of the House of Orange by the King of the Netherlands.