Celia Berkers studied chemistry at Utrecht University, where she graduated cum laude in 2003. She then started her PhD research at the Harvard Medical School in Boston, and continued her PhD at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI) in Amsterdam. For her research at the NKI, she was awarded the Antoni van Leeuwenhoek Prize 2010 for most promising young scientist and she received her PhD degree cum laude in 2010. She then moved to the Beatson Institute for Cancer Research in Glasgow (UK) to join the laboratory of Prof. Vousden, supported by a Rubicon fellowship from NWO. In 2013, Dr Berkers moved to Utrecht University to start her own metabolomics group and was awarded a VENI grant from NWO. For her research into the workings of the proteasome she was awarded the 2014 Heineken Young Scientists Award for Biochemistry and Biophysics by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences.