Ronald Bleys studied medicine in Utrecht. After his MD graduation he chose a career as an anatomist. Since 1987 he has been working in that position at the Faculty of Medicine of Utrecht University, which merged into the UMC Utrecht in 2000. In addition to his teaching duties, he started doing research on the autonomic nervous system and in 1995 he obtained his PhD degree on the thesis 'Innervation of the basal cerebral arteries: pathways and densities'. Part of this research was carried out in London at the anatomy department of the Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine. In 2000 he became Head of the Department of Anatomy at UMC Utrecht and in 2012 Full Professor of Clinical Anatomy. In 2013 he won the Outstanding Teacher Award of Utrecht University.