Arne is head of the Department of Psychiatry of the Amsterdam UMC and professor in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. He is involved in two main lines of research.

First, he has been interested for decades in gaining insights into development of antisocial and aggressive behaviour in children and adolescents within the framework of the complex interplay of biology, psychology, sociology, culture, policy-making and politics. As such he is involved in studies on genetic vulnerabilities and adaptation as well as youth justice system reform. This line of research Arne conducts within the research group led by Lucres Nauta-Jansen at the Department of Child- and Adolescent Psychiatry & Psychosocial Care at Amsterdam UMC.

Second, his scientific interest has broadened over the years to (the role of Psychiatry in) general mental health and flourishing through the lifespan, triangulating knowledges from various sources and perspectives,  and co-designing ecosystems in which people can flourish and have access to flexible just-in-time-just-in-place interventions, preferably in their own context and embedded in their informal networks.

He likes to learn and believes (mental) health advocacy is an important task of any researcher, even more so in psychiatry, and even more so in his role as Department Head. He strives to improve his structural competencies on a daily basis.

Arne is co-founder and board member of MIND Us: https://mindus.nl/
He is cofounder and board member of de Beweging van Nul: Beweging van 0 | Wij gaan voor 0, jij ook?
He is board member of Alexandra Broeder’s theater company Tijd van de Wolf:  Tijd van de Wolf
Arne is chair of the advisory board of Young Perspectives: https://youngperspectives.org/