Niels was born 1989 in Sittard, The Netherlands. In 2013, he obtained his Master’s degree in Chemistry at Leiden University. During his master he worked of the synthesis of bapphen-based mononuclear Fe(II) spin crossover complexes in the group of Prof. Bouwman and on the development of a new participating pivaloyl protecting group and its use in the synthesis of repeating tri- and tetrarhamnosides in the group of Prof. Overkleeft. He started his PhD in 2013 under the supervision of Prof van der Marel and Dr. Codée, where he worked on the synthesis of carbohydrate ligands for immune receptors and their conjugation to antigenic peptides to be used as cancer vaccines. During his PhD he obtained a second Master’s degree in Education. In June 2019, he joined the group of Prof. Minnaard as a postdoctoral fellow.