Prof Diederik Dippel is a vascular neurologist and professor of acute treatment of neurovascular diseases. He was also trained in clinical decision sciences and epidemiology. He works in Erasmus MC University Medical Centre and is co-director of the Erasmus Stroke Centre. He is chairman of the board of the regional stroke service, a collaboration of 7 stroke units, a large medical rehabilitation centre and several geriatric rehabilitation centres. He is chair of the ESO Stroke Unit Certification Committee. He was principal investigator of a number of stroke trials, including MR CLEAN. He is now research leader of the CONTRAST consortium, a collaboration of stroke researchers in the Netherlands which hosts a series of experimental studies and clinical trials on acute stroke and intracerebral haemorrhage, several of which have been published in major clinical journals, such as MR CLEAN NO-IV and MR CLEAN MED.