Hendrik Coenraad "Coen" Hemker (born 21 July 1934) is a Dutch biochemist and academic administrator.
[1] With his mother being a heart patient and his father spending a lot of time on his hobbies, Hemker frequently looked after his four younger brothers.
[3][5] Hemker subsequently started his specialist training to become a pediatrician but stopped as he preferred doing research.
The two men found Hemker's idea was correct and they subsequently published their findings in Nature.
[2] In 1974 he was appointed and became part of a group of seven professors that prepared the founding of the Faculty of Medicine at the Rijksuniversiteit Limburg (later renamed Maastricht University).
[8] During his time at Maastricht problem-based learning was considered innovative at the institute, although Hemker was initially positive about this he later became neutral to negative on the approach.
[9] Hemker has stated he took the opportunity to show the importance of research at a time when the university was focused on education.
[2] The university board of directors, led by Rob van den Biggelaar, did not look favorably upon his nomination.
[8][9] Six months after laying down his position as rector Hemker was asked by Wim Deetman the Dutch Minister of Education and Sciences to become chairman of the university board of directors.
Hemker was subsequently reprimanded for not having separated his own business venture sufficiently from his work in the faculty.
[2][8] In 1968 Hemker, in collaboration with Prof. R.G.Macfarlane (Oxford), found that prothrombin is converted into thrombin by two clotting proteins (factors Xa and Va) adsorbed next to each other on a membrane surface.
[13] The detailed enzyme kinetics of these interactions was investigated later in collaboration with Rosing, Tans and Van Dieijen.
[18][19] A third main subject developed in collaboration with S.Béguin, is the invention of an automated thrombin generation test as sensitive probe for the function of the hemostatic power and thrombotic tendency of the blood.
[3][27] Hemker became a foreign honorary member of the Koninklijke Academie voor Geneeskunde van België [nl] in 1991.
[9] During the late 1980s Hemker suffered from severe ulcerative colitis, which led to him losing 20 kilograms and it nearly killed him.