Research of Jan van Dam focuses on biological questions in a geological context, attempting to bridge fields such as evolutionary biology, stratigraphy and paleoclimatology.

He finished his PhD at Utrecht University, the Netherlands in 1997 with a study on the taxonomy, chronology, paleobiology and paleoecology of Late Miocene micromammals from the Teruel Basin, Spain. He performed several postdoc studies at Utrecht University and the Institut Català de Paleontologia focusing on patterns and causes of small mammal turnover, and the reconstruction of Neogene European terrestrial climate. His research includes fields such as terrestial astrochronology, isotopic geochemistry and geometric morphometrics. He fulfilled research grant positions in Madrid and Helsinki, and was guest faculty member at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. His research has received support from Utrecht University, Institut Català de Paleontologia, Dutch Science Foundation, Academy of Finland, Diputacíon General de Aragón, Cultural Exchange Program Utrecht University-CSIC, and EC-funded BiodIberia Program.

Jan van Dam organized fieldwork campaigns in Spain and participated in campaigns in Turkey and Pakistan. He has teached at Universities in Utrecht, Amsterdam and Barcelona, and stayed as a Flint Lecturer at Yale University. He coordinated symposia and excursions for the Dutch-Flemish Paleobiological Circle, and fulfilled an associated editorship for the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society.