Neil Aaronson worked at the NKI till he retired at the end of 2019. His research at the NKI focused on assessing how individuals adjust to their illness and medical treatment. He has championed the development and use of standardized questionnaires for assessing the health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of patients with cancer to help physicians and nurses provide a better quality of care. These questionnaires are now used all over the world to help the patient, doctor and nurse, and the aggregated data across patients can inform treatment policy and quality of care initiatives on a system-wide level. With his research group he has also developed and evaluated a range of behavioral interventions to relieve symptoms and enhance the physical and psychosocial well being of our patients.