Career
Wapstra became a full professor in 1955 at the department of experimental physics at the Technische Hogeschool, now the Technical University in Delft, Netherlands. On the 18th of March 1963 Wapstra entered the board of the IKO, now known as NIKHEF, as the scientific director of nuclear spectroscopy. He became the director in 1971, succeeding Van Lieshout, where he continued on until 1982.
He retired in 1987.
Foreign this work he obtained the SUNAMCO medal of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (International Union of Pure and Applied Physics) in September 2004.