He built a research group of currently about 20 members, has been a full professor since 2012 and since 2017 holds the chair of the laboratory of Biochemistry (6 PIs; including ERC and Vidi laureates). His research program focuses on two areas: principles underlying multicellular plant development and mechanisms in auxin biology. A general strategy is to (1) use simple models (such as the Arabidopsis embryo) to address complex questions, (2) integrate methodologies from multiple fields (e.g., microscopy, transcriptomics, genetics, biochemistry, modelling) and (3) focus on major, unresolved questions of fundamental origin.

In past years, his team has made seminal discoveries in both areas. These include the identification of genes and mechanisms controlling root, vascular tissue, ground tissue and stem cell identity in the Arabidopsis embryo (Nature 2010; Dev. Cell 2013, 2015; Science 2014; PNAS 2017a, 2017b; Nature Plants 2017; Plant Cell 2019; Development 2019, 2020a, 2020b), discovery of a mechanism controlling cell division orientation in the plant embryo and a novel cell polarity system (Dev. Cell 2014; Curr. Biol 2018; Plant J. 2018; Nature Plants 2019; Cell 2020; PNAS 2020a), and mechanisms underlying auxin response (Dev. Cell 2012; Cell 2014; Nature Methods 2015; PNAS 2020b; Cell 2024). While initial efforts focused on the flowering plant model Arabidopsis thaliana, his team has more recently included evolutionary approaches (e.g. eLife 2018 for evolution of auxin response and PNAS 2020c for vascular tissue development), and adopted Bryophyte model systems (Marchantia and Physcomitrium) that now allow comparative evolutionary studies, and discovery of ancestral system properties (e.g. Nature Plants 2020 for auxin response and Cell 2020 for cell polarity). International visibility, activities, prizes, scholarships etc.

Research in Weijers’ team has been well-funded by prestigious grants, including NWO-Vidi (2006), ERC Starting Grant (2011), NWO-Vici (2015) and ERC Advanced Grant (2019-2024). In addition, he received significant support (7 grants) from the NWO open competition programs (ALW, ECHO, ENW), headed a multi-partner ERA-CAPS program (EURO-PEC) and a European Marie Curie Training network (SIREN) and is partner in an HFSP research grant (2022). Since 2024, Weijers leads a 23 Million Euro GreenTE (Gravitation) program, funded by the Dutch government, focused in plant mechanobiology.

Weijers is actively engaged in promoting scientific excellence, science organization and outreach. He is theme chair for Developmental Biology at the graduate school Experimental Plant Sciences, has chaired Dutch plant science conferences, chaired the programme committee of the NWO Life congress, often acts on scientific committees of conferences, is chair of the NWO round table Life Sciences and regularly acts as panel member for grant evaluations (ERC, NWO, DFG). He is secretary general of the International Association for Sexual Plant Reproduction Research and board member of the International Plant Growth Substances Association and the Dutch Society for Developmental Biology. He is an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW; 2021) and EMBO (2020) and founded the Wageningen Young Academy and Science Café Wageningen.

He is senior editor at the Plant Cell, was editor in chief of Plant Reproduction, and acts on the editorial advisory board of Science Signaling. He is regularly invited as keynote or seminar speaker (10-15 times per year), and publishes regularly, and generally in top-tier and broad-interest journals. His work is widely cited (>100 average citations per paper; ISI Highly Cited Researcher in 2021, 2023). In addition to prestigious grants, he has been awarded the 2006 Netherlands Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (NVBMB) award. The quality of his teaching was recognized by the Wageningen University “Teacher of the Year” award in 2013. He supervised 33 PhD students (12 current; 21 completed; 3 with distinction; including 8 EPS Talent Graduate Programme fellows) and 23 post-docs (7 current; including various EMBO, DFG, Marie Curie, FEBS, Veni and JSPS fellows). Many alumni now have positions in academia or industry. These include post-docs that have started their own labs (Bert De Rybel, Ghent; Kuan-Ju Lu, Taichung; Hirotaka Kato Ejime; Andre Kuhn, Amsterdam, Margot Smit, Tubingen, Jorge Hernandez-Garcia, Madrid; Keita Tanaka, Shanghai) and PhD students and various post-docs that have attracted prestigious grants (e.g. EMBO, FWO, Rubicon, Marie Curie) for post-docs abroad.