He received his Ph.D. degree from the Eindhoven University of Technology in 1989 with prof J.D. Janssen and prof. G de With as his supervisors; title thesis: "A simulation method for the die compaction of granular materials". He is a member of the Materials Technology division of the faculty of Mechanical Engineering. His research interests in continuum mechanics are focussed on the modelling of history dependent material behaviour (plasticity, damage and fracture) in forming processes and in micromechanical modelling (crystal plasticity approaches), including the numerical implementation in a finite element environment.