Willie Peijnenburg is currently employed as Senior Researcher at the Center for Safety of Substances and Products of the Dutch National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM). Thereupon, he is professor at the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) of Leiden University in the Netherlands, holding the extraordinary chair position “Environmental Toxicology and Biodiversity”. His research interests include:

1- Implementation of bioavailability of heavy metals in risk assessment procedures. The aim of this research is to develop methodologies for assessing soil-type and water-type specific heavy metal standards. Models are developed and validated that combine chemical insights in the area of metal speciation, with biological insights regarding uptake of metals as influenced by compartment-specific and organism-specific factors.

2- Development and application of quantitative structure-activity relationships (QSARs) for the estimation of physical-chemical properties and transformation rates of chemical substances in the environment, with the aim of using these QSARs in models for ecological risk assessment.

3- Biotic and abiotic transformation processes of chemical substances in natural ecosystems: development of methods for extrapolating data obtained in laboratory settings to realistic field conditions.

4- Fate and effects of organic and inorganic nanomaterials in the environment: fate studies as affected by interactions with biotic and abiotic matrices, and effect studies on aquatic and benthic organisms following assessment of the bioavailable form of the nanomaterials.

In addition, he has served as lecturer in various bachelor and master courses in Europe and in Asia, was a member of over 20 national and international Ph.D. committees, is member of advisory boards of PhD-students, and acts as supervisor/promotor of  10 PhD students at Leiden University (CML), was invited as session chairman/moderator at various national and international workshops and conferences, and acted as co-organizer of one-week conferences on environmental degradation processes. He has published over 180 manuscripts in peer reviewed journals, 11 publications in non-peer reviewed publications, 17 book chapters and books, and 41 reports.