Holger Waalkens studied physics at the University of Oldenburg where he graduated in 1996. He received his PhD at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at the University of Bremen under the supervision of Peter H. Richter in 1999. After three postdoc years in Bremen he moved with a fellowship from the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft to the School of Mathematics at the  University of Bristol. In 2002 he spent six months as a postdoc at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley. From 2003 to 2006  he was lecturer at the School of Mathematics at the University of Bristol. Since 2006 he is adjunct hoogleraar in mathematics at the Johann Bernoulli Institute at the University of Groningen. His main fields of research are Hamiltonian systems and mathematical physics.