Lukas Kapitein studied Physics at the VU University in Amsterdam, where he also received his PhD in Biophysics in 2007. His postdoctoral training in Neurobiology was at the Erasmus Medical Center, funded by an ALW-VENI grant from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and an Erasmus MC Fellowship. He started as an group leader at Utrecht University in 2011 and became full professor in Molecular and Cellular Biophysics in 2018. In 2013, he received  a Starting Grant  from the European Research Council (ERC) and a VIDI fellowship from the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). In 2018, he received an ERC Consolidator Grant.