Aartjan Beekman studied Medicine at the VU University Amsterdam and finished his Psychiatry specialty training in 1991. He completed his PhD (cum laude) in 1996 with a thesis titled “Depression in later life: studies in the community” and was also registered as epidemiologist B while doing his PhD. His clinical work first focused on acute and emergency psychiatry and later on patients with complex affective disorders. He served as deputy (5 years) and director (5 years) of the residency programme for psychiatry at VUmc/GGZ inGeest.