Ale Algra trained in physics at Utrecht University and obtained a BSc in 1975. He continued training at the Medical School of the Erasmus University Rotterdam (MD 1981). In the meantime he worked at the Thoraxcenter on the computer analysis of 24-hour ECGs; originally on technical aspects of ECG-analysis. Later he studied predictors for sudden death from 24-hour ECG, resulting in his doctorate thesis in 1990. In 1984-85 he trained at Harvard School of Public Health (MSc Epidemiology). From 1990 on he works at University Medical Center Utrecht, half-time in the department of Neurology, and half-time in the Julius Center. In 1999-2000 he spent a sabbatical as Visiting Professor at the University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, with the research group of Barnett and Hachinski. As of 2005 he works one day per week as professor of clinical epidemiology in the department of Clinical Epidemiology of the Leiden University Medical Center.

 My main field of research is cerebrovascular disease. I have been involved as principal (co-)investigator in several multicenter secondary prevention trials with antithrombotic treatments, both in patients with cerebral ischaemia and patients after infrainguinal bypass surgery. Within the Julius Center I am one of the principal investigators of the ongoing SMART (Second Manifestations in ARTerial Disease) study, in which currently over 10,000 patients with vascular disease are enrolled. One of my current interests is the difference in coagulation propensity between young patients with ischaemic stroke and myocardial infarction.