Dr. Van der Werf joined Belnap Surgical Associates in 2003 when he came to Utah from Gainesville, Florida where he was an Assistant Professor of Surgery at the University Of Florida College Of Medicine and the Surgical Director of the Pancreas Transplant Program at Shands at the University of Florida Transplant Center.

He received his Bachelor of Science degree in chemistry from the University of California at Davis in 1984 and his medical degree from the University of California at San Francisco in 1988. His general surgery training was obtained at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Hospital from 1988-1996.

From 1991-1994, he worked as a Research Fellow in Transplant Immunology working on mechanisms of hyperacute rejection in discordant xenografts at Harvard Medical School and the Sandoz Center for Immunobiology. His specialty training in multi-organ transplantation was completed at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and Clinics in Madison from 1996-1998. He joined the faculty at the University of Florida in 1998.

He is a member of the American College of Surgeons, the American Society of Transplant Surgeons, the International Transplantation Society, and Association of Academic Surgeons. He served as the regional representative for the Kidney/Pancreas Transplant Committee of the United Network for Organ Sharing.

His clinical areas of interest are transplants of the liver, pancreas and kidney; cancer surgery involving the liver, gallbladder, bile ducts and pancreas; and general laparoscopic procedures.