Stefano van der Aalst is a medical doctor from the Netherlands, with work experience in psychiatry and addiction medicine. He has an interest in the rapidly growing field of psychedelic medicine to treat a variety of psychiatric diseases. He is particularly passionate about this field as innovation in psychiatry has been limited compared to other medical fields, while there is a huge need for new treatment modalities. He would love to combine clinical work with research to see if, and where, these interesting medicines could see implementation. During his medical studies and thereafter, he has conducted research on the therapeutic use of intravenous and intranasal esketamine for treatment resistant major depressive disorder. This research has been published in the Elsevier ‘Journal of Affective Disorders’ and has been presented at Interdisciplinary Conference on Psychedelic Research (ICPR) 2022.