Jan-Willem Schoonen studied Analytical Chemistry at the Hogeschool of West-Brabant (1997 – 2001) where he performed an international internship on analyzing wines at the “Instituto Superior do Engenheira do Porto” and an internship at Unilever on the development of gaschromatographic methods for analyzing taste and flavour. After graduating (BSc) he started to work at Interscience, Breda where he became a gaschromatography specialist (2001-2003). Liking the job at Interscience, he however desired to learn more about creating and designing analytical tools and started a Master in Biopharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Leiden (2003-2006). At the department of Analytical Biosciences he performed a research internship on rapid prototyping of electrophoresis chips to aid single cell research and a second internship on the development of a stacked ring electrode ion funnel to increase MS sensitivity. After graduating (MSc) he started to work on developing capillary electrophoresis chips with laser induced fluorescence detection of amino acids for the detection of life on mars (2006 – 2007). After that, he started a PhD on developing an LCxLC interface for metabolite research at the Netherlands Metabolomics Centre, which is now in progress and to be defended in July 2011.