Piet van Sterkenburg (Breda 1942) is emeritus professor Lexicology in Leiden. Since 1970 he was employed by the Institute for Dutch Lexicology / Instituut voor Nederlandse Lexicologie (INL). From 1976 till 1977 he was acting editor-in-chief of the Woordenboek der Nederlandsche Taal (WNT) and from 1977 till 2007 he became the general scientific manager. In that capacity he had the responsability for the new spelling of 1995 and for the compilation of the Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal from 1995 and 2005. Apart from this, he had a teaching assignment for 26 years at the evening classes of the Nutsacademie (Rotterdam) for the programme mo-B Dutch. From 1977 till 2008 he was editor-in-chief of Van Dale Groot Woordenboek van Hedendaags Nederlands and of the Synoniemenwoordenboek by Van Dale.
He was also a member of the jury of Het Groot Dictee der Nederlandse Taal during ten years. Since 1992 Van Sterkenburg is secretary-general of the Comité International Permanent des Linguistes. This Committee was the first, as early as 1992, to draw the attention to the problem of the endangered languages. In 2007 he held the chair “De Nederlanden in de wereld” at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. Since 2007 he is active as the manager of Van Sterkenburg Taal en Spraak. In 2013 he co-edited with Ferenc Kiefer Eight Decades of General Linguistics.