Michiel WM van den Brekel, MD PhD, graduated “cum laude” from the Medical Faculty of the University of Leuven (Belgium) in 1987. He did his Ph.D. cum laude at the Free University and wrote a thesis on “Imaging and Histophathology of Neck Node Metastases”. He was the first to study the value of ultrasound guided aspiration cytology in neck nodes. After his Otolaryngology-residency at the Free University in Amsterdam he did a Head and Neck Fellowship at the Netherlands Cancer Institute and the University of Toronto, Mount Sinai Hospital. From 1997 until 2000 he worked as a head and neck surgeon at the Free University Hospital and since 2000 in the Netherlands Cancer Institute in Amsterdam where he was chairman from 2009 until 2023. In 2011 he was appointed as Professor at the University of Amsterdam. His clinical research focuses on translational medicine,  rehabilitation as well as imaging of head and neck cancer patients. He (co-)authored over 350 peer-reviewed papers and chapters.