Born in Hoogezand-Sappemeer, the Netherlands, I studied experimental physics and astronomy at the University of Groningen. I got my Ph.D. after writing a dissertation on charge exchange emission from solar wind ions interacting with cometary atmospheres at the Nuclear Accelerator Institute (KVI) at the University of Groningen. Being awarded a NASA Postdoctoral Program grant I moved to Washington DC and started observing comets and asteroids with the Swift space telescope at the Goddard Space Flight Center. In 2010 I joined the Small Body Group at the University of Maryland, where I got involved in the comet fly-bys of the Deep Impact and Stardust-NEXT missions, and in the Rosetta mission to comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.