I graduated in 1978 at Leiden University with majors in plant ecology, limnology/hydrobiology and animal ecology. A Fulbright-Hays competitive grant allowed me to conduct a year’s research at the Department of Entomology, University of California, Riverside, USA (1978-1979). From 1980 to 1984 I conducted my PhD at the Department of Animal Ecology of Leiden University. During the end of this period I was appointed at the Laboratory of Entomology, Wageningen University to work on information processing and behavioural plasticity in insects.
Important results were the recognition of the great importance of learning and memory in parasitoids and the major role of plants in guiding natural enemies to their insect victims. In 1996 I was awarded the Silverstein – Simeone Award of the International Society of Chemical Ecology (‘in recognition of outstanding research at the forefront of any field of chemical ecology’). In 1997 I became full professor at Wageningen University. In 1999 I conducted 6 months research at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and in 2003 another 6 months at the University of Toronto. In 2004 I was elected Member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). In 2006 I was awarded the British Rank Prize for Nutrition, together with Joop van Lenteren and Marcel Dicke (Lab. of Entomology, WUR) and in 2017 the Honorary Membership of the British Ecological Society.
My ‘life with NIOO-KNAW’ started at the end of 1997 when I became chair of the international Scientific Advisory Board of NIOO-KNAW. At November 1, 1999 I was appointed as Director of NIOO-KNAW (until 2011 a three-centre institute) while remaining Professor in Evolutionary Ecology at Wageningen University. In 2011 I moved two of NIOO’s centres to a new building in Wageningen (see below). Throughout my career I have always combined active research (published > 200 papers in international journals) with management, boards, committees and outreach. On November 1, 2019 after 20 years of leading the institute, I stepped down as director of NIOO-KNAW. My research, boards and committees and outreach will continue…