Han Dolman studied biology and acquired a PhD in physical geography. He worked at the UK's Institute of Hydrology in parametrizing land surface processes in climate models. After that he worked in Wageningen where after the Kyoto Protocol in 1997 his attention focussed very much on carbon in terrestrial ecosystems. Since 2003 he has been a professor in ecohydrology at the Department of Earth Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam where he teaches and performs research in climate and carbon science. He was awarded the prestigious Vladimir Vernadsky Medal of the European Geophysical Union in 2013. He also received the Presidential gold medal of honour from Yakutia for his work on carbon in permafrost systems.