He has an MSc (1982, with honours) in theoretical physics. He has been employed at Philips Research Laboratories, and at Tilburg University, where he worked on subjects like automated deduction, computational semantics and the design of intelligent interfaces. In 1998 he joined the Institute of Perception Research (IPO) and in 2001 he gained a PhD from the institute of programming research and algorithmics at the Eindhoven University of Technology. His current interests are in adaptive algorithms, reinforcement learning, and embodied interaction and cooperation. He believes that the understanding and application of biological principles is essential to the further development of smart computation and interaction mechanisms.