Jan de Laat, PhD, studied physics at the Eindhoven University of Technology and prepared his thesis "The perception of fluctuating sounds by hearing-impaired listeners" at the Free University Medical Center in Amsterdam. He is medical-physicist - audiologist and connected to the Department of Audiology at the Leiden University Medical Center. His scientific expertise is the development and application of new diagnostic tools for hearing-impaired children and elderly, both in electrophysiology and in psychophysics. He is member of the advisory board of different foundations, like the Netherlands Ear Foundation and the Dutch Association for the Hard of Hearing and member of the board of reference of the Health Council of the Netherlands.