Doctorate of medicine degree from the University of Amsterdam, 1987; since 1991 until his selection for ESA-Astronaut Program he was project researcher of human medicine at ESA; hobbies: scuba diving, skiing, flying, history, travelling; candidate payload specialist for Neurolab / STS-90, September 1995; nominated by ESA as a payload specialist for STS-107, but due to (possible political) unknown reasons, Ilan Ramon was selected by NASA, May 1997; double for Pedro Duque (Soyuz TMA-3); since October 01, 2004 part-time professor spaceflight and medical science at the Free University of Amsterdam; has begun ISS Expedition crew training as a back-up crewmember to Canadian astronaut Bob Thirsk for the first Canadian ISS increment (second part of 2005); back-up for Frank De Winne in the double crew of ISS Expedition 20/21 (Soyuz TMA-15) starting in 2007; assigned as a flight engineer to ISS Expedition 30/31 (Soyuz TMA-03M) on August 5, 2009.