André Nevelsteen was head of vascular surgery at the University Hospital of Gasthuisberg, Leuven, Belgium. He was born in Geel on 8 August 1951. He studied medicine at the Catholic University of Leuven, graduating in 1975. He went on to train in general surgery and then specialised in vascular surgery. His training included spending time with E Stanley Crawford's department in Houston, Texas. He became clinical head of vascular surgery in Leuven in 1992, and then chief of vascular surgery in 1999. He wrote numerous articles, notably on the long term follow-up of surgical aortic reconstruction, the treatment of prosthetic infections and on the endovascular treatment of aneurysms. He was a member of several scientific societies and was president of the European Society for Vascular Surgery in 2001 and 2002. He was for many years a member of the board of the Belgian Society for Vascular Surgery. André Nevelsteen died on 9 December 2009, aged 58, after a long illness.