I am a Dutch astronomer affiliated with the Kapteyn Astronomical Institute at the University of Groningen. I have spent most of my career studying the properties of resolved stellar systems, primarily dwarf galaxies in the Local Group. I have worked on star formation histories from detailed photometry of individual stars and chemical evolution and kinematics of dwarf galaxies based on a range of different spectroscopic approaches. I am the project scientist for MICADO (Multi-AO Imaging Camera for Deep Observations), the first light instrument on the new ESO (European Southern Observatory ) ELT (Extremely Large Telescope) under construction on Cerro Armazones in Chile. I teach at the University of Groningen and supervise undergraduate students and PhD students in a range of projects.