Alexander Buerkle studied Medicine at the University of Freiburg, Germany and received his Medical License and Doctorate in Medicine in October 1982. Thereafter he was a postdoctoral assistant and subsequently a group leader at the German Cancer Research Center, Heidelberg, Germany (1984 - 2000). In July 1995, he earned the qualification Habilitation and venia legendi in “Toxicology and Chemotherapy” at the Medical Faculty, University of Heidelberg, Germany. In 2000, Dr. Buerkle took up the position of a Senior Lecturer at University of Newcastle, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. In 2002, he was appointed Full Professor and Chair of Molecular Toxicology at the Department of Biology at the University of Konstanz, Germany. From 2003 to 2006 he also served as Chairman of the Department of Biology.

Dr. Buerkle is a member of the Society for Toxicology within the German Society for Experimental and Clinical Pharmacology and Toxicology (DGPT), the Society of Toxicology (SOT) USA, the German Cancer Society, the German Society for Research on DNA Repair (Member and Secretary), and the German Society for Gerontology and Geriatrics. He is member of several Editorial Boards and was co-organizer of a recent Gordon Research Conference. In 2004, he was elected Member of the Executive Committee and Treasurer of IUTOX and he was re-elected in 2007.