Professor Marc Benninga studied medicine at the University of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. After receiving his Medical degree he worked as a research fellow at the department of paediatric gastroenterology and nutrition at the Academic Medical Centre in Amsterdam with Jan Taminiau and Hans Büller. He performed extensive research on constipation and faecal incontinence in childhood. Subsequently he was trained in paediatrics at the Wilhelmina Children’s Hospital in Utrecht, The Netherlands. After his paediatric training he performed research at The Women’s and Children’s Hospital, Adelaide, Australia with Geoff Davidson and Taher Omari. During his stay in Adelaide his research focussed on maturation of upper gastrointestinal motility in very young infants. In 1999 he became a staff member in the Emma Children’s Hospital, Amsterdam University Medical Centres. The focus of his current clinical and research work is gastro-oesophageal reflux disease, recurrent abdominal pain, constipation, functional non-retentive faecal incontinence and inflammatory bowel disease in childhood. He played in the Dutch National hockey team and competed at the Olympics in 1988, Seoul.