Born in Terneuzen Van Damme received his Master of Arts in Mathematics at the Radboud University Nijmegen in 1979, and his Doctor of Philosophy in Technical Sciences in 1983 at the Eindhoven University of Technology with a thesis entitled "Refinements of the Nash Equilibrium Concept" under supervision of Jaap Wessels and Reinhard Selten.
After graduation Van Damme started his academic career in 1983 as Assistant Professor at the Delft University of Technology, and got promoted to Associate Professor in 1984. In 1986 he moved to the University of Bonn, where he was Associate Professor in Economic Theory until 1990. In 1989 he got appointed Professor of Economics at the Tilburg University Since then he has held several administrative positions at the CentER, the Center for Economic Research at the Tilburg University.
In between he was Visiting Professor at European Universities in Bielefeld, Copenhagen, Stockholm, Helsinki, Vienna, Lisbon.
And in the United States of America at the Kellogg School of Management. In 2009 he awarded a knighthood in the Order of the Netherlands Lion.
He is also member of multiple editorial boards.
