I work as an associate professor at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. My research focusses on comparative political behaviour. I am interested in topics like the electoral competition between challenger and mainstream parties, new party entry and party survival, the diversity of national parliaments and parliamentary groups and descriptive representation of personality traits and how personality shapes political careers. Here I am particularly interested in virtue-related personality traits like honesty-humility from the HEXACO model, Dark Triad and Light Triad traits. My research line on party entry and exit  received two 3-year research grants from the Research Foundation Flanders (2016-2019) and the Walloon Fund for Scientific Research (2019-2022). My work has appeared in journals such as the American Journal of Political Science, the British Journal of Political Science, the European Journal of Political Research, European Union Politics, the Journal of Politics, Party Politics and West European Politics. In addition I have taught numerous courses on political behaviour and research methods and statistics.