Education
Born in Amsterdam, Blokzijl graduated from the University of Amsterdam in 1970, and received a doctorate in experimental physics from the same university in 1977.
Born in Amsterdam, Blokzijl graduated from the University of Amsterdam in 1970, and received a doctorate in experimental physics from the same university in 1977.
Blokzijl had been active in building networks for the particle physics community in Europe. He was founding member and chairman of NIKHEF, the National Institute for Nuclear and High energy physics in the Netherlands. At the Réseaux Intellectual Property Européens (RIPE), the European open forum for Intellectual Property networking, he was spokesperson at its foundation in 1989 and later chaired this forum.
He was also instrumental in the creation of the Réseaux Intellectual Property Européens Network Coordination Centre (RIPE National Cadet Corps) in 1992 as the first Regional Internet Registry (RIR) in the world.
In 1999 he also was selected for the ICANN Board by the Address Supporting Organization, where he served until December 2002. In 2013 Blokzijl announced his resignation as chairman of RIPE, as per RIPE68, after being in this position for 25 years.
He has appointed Hans Petter Holen as his successor. He received this Royal Honour from Lodewijk Asscher, the Acting Mayor of Amsterdam.
He died on 1 December 2015, aged 72.