Born in the Hague, Simone Buitendijk studied medicine at Utrecht University and received a M.Ph degree at the Yale School of Medicine in 1990, where she had evaluated medications taken during early pregnancy and its relationship to maternal attributes. She received her Doctorate in Epidemiology at Leiden University and her research was on IVF pregnancies and their follow-up.
Dr. Buitendijk, who specializes in women's health, is currently a Vice Provost for Education at Imperial College London, and is slated to become Vice Chancellor of the University of Leeds in September 2020. Earlier, she was a senior researcher in perinatal epidemiology at the Netherlands Organisation for Applied Scientific Research. As a Professor, Vice Rector Magnificus and a member of the Executive Board at Leiden University, she led several strategies to improve educational experiences and innovative teaching practices. Dr. Buitendijk was the first person to hold a Chair in Primary Care Obstetrics in the Netherlands.
Under Buitendijk’s leadership, Leiden University became one of the first universities in Europe to develop massive open and private online courses. While at Imperial College, Buitendijk partnered with Coursera, creating a series of online courses around artificial intelligence.