In 1987 Piet Dijkstra started as an Assistant Professor in the research group Polymer Chemistry and Biomaterials of the Faculty Science and Technology of the University of Twente in Enschede, The Netherlands. He subsequently started working as an independent Professor in the Biomaterials Science and Technology research group, part of the Institute for Technical Medicine and Biomedical Engineering (MIRA), University of Twente.

His main topic of research was the macromolecular engineering of synthetic and natural biodegradable materials for biomedical applications. He published over 150 papers and has a number of patents on his name. He was the chairman of the “Netherlands Society for Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering” in the Netherlands and was involved in the bachelor and master program Biomedical Engineering. In September 2018 he retired but he continues working part-time at the University of Twente and the MERLN Institute.