[2] Following his postdoctoral position in the laboratory of chemist JoAnne Stubbe, van der Donk joined the faculty at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 1997.

[4] In September 2003, van der Donk was appointed the William S. Hammack Chemistry in the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign's School of Chemical Sciences.

[7] As a professor of chemistry, van der Donk was named a Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigator in 2008 to identify and exploit new classes of compounds that have potential as antibiotics.

[10] Van der Donk was also recognized by the American Association for the Advancement of Science "for pioneering contributions to the discovery of natural products and the elaboration of their biosynthesis.

"[11] In 2012, van der Donk and microbiology professor William W. Metcalf discovered the origin of much of the methane in the oxygen-rich regions of the ocean.