User:Xfzeglmzz/Pierre Joseph Courtoy

Pierre Courtoy (born in 1949) is a Belgian physician, researcher, and university professor.

Biography
Born Pierre Joseph Courtoy on October 14, 1949, he is the second son of the gynecologist Albert Courtoy and Godelieve Shockaert, who is respectively the daughter and sister of Rufin Schockaert and Joseph Schockaert (both gynecology professors at Louvain).

Academic training
Pierre Courtoy started his medical studies at FUNPD before transferring to the Catholic University of Louvain. He earned his candidate degree in 1973 and his medical doctorate at 23, both with top honors and jury commendations for his student-researcher activities. After internal medicine training, he undertook postdoctoral stays in Paris focusing on tissue immunolocalization at the ultrastructural level and at Yale University specializing in cell biology and electron microscopy, with Marilyn Farquhar and Georges Palade (co-winner of the Nobel Prize with Belgian Christian de Duve and Albert Claude). In 1985, his aggregation thesis demonstrated endosome sorting through microscopy and fractionation. He then joined FNRS. In 1990, he founded the European endocytosis group and led the first Gordon-type conference for the European Science Foundation.

Academic career
In 1992, he began his academic career and published a seminal book on endocytosis upon his appointment at ICP (future Institut de Duve), at the Catholic University of Louvain. He became a full professor in 1999, in seven years.

Professor Pierre Courtoy updated his popular cell biology and general pathology courses for students in medicine, pharmacology, biomedical sciences, and dentistry. He included concepts of maieutics, history, and philosophy to promote independent and critical scientific thinking. In the early 2010s, he provided free access to recordings of his courses.

During his research career, Pierre Courtoy dedicated 35 years to studying the normal and pathological endocytic system, publishing over 230 scientific papers (>15,000 citations). He served on numerous national and international research funding committees, advised deans, chaired departments, led promotion committees, and supervised master's, doctoral, and postdoctoral students in his lab. Courtoy's passion for research led him to establish the high-performing Platform of Cellular and Tissue Imaging (PICT ), welcoming collaboration with researchers. He attained emeritus status in December 2015 and continues active involvement in various research programs, particularly focusing on cystinosis.

Awards
- 2013: First laureate of the Health Sciences Sector Award.

- 2004: Holder of a Francqui Chair.

- 1998: Appointed Knight of the Order of Leopold by Albert II.