Jaap van der Wal PhD is medical doctor and works nowadays as associate professor in Anatomy and Embryology at the University of Maastricht, Holland. 

Since his medical education in 1973 he became specialized in the functional anatomy and development of the locomotor apparatus, in particular regarding proprioception i.e. the sense for the perception of locomotion and body position. Gradually he developed into being a teacher in Philosophy of Science and in Medical Anthropology. “My passion however was and still is human embryology. The human body is a process, developing and functioning in time. The embryo moves, behaves in forms. It is in this area that I encountered the anthroposophy. The Goethean phenomenological approach, which I met there, appeared to be the key for bridging the domain of 'natural science' and 'spiritual science' – or even: religion -. I apply the method of dynamic morphology to understand what we actually are doing as human beings when we are still an embryo."