Rob van Hulst researches the diagnosis and treatment of gas embolisms and the toxic effects of high oxygen pressure on the lungs. The results of his research are relevant to both clinical patients and professional divers in the armed forces. A wide variety of conditions are treated using hyperbaric oxygenation therapy, such as problem wounds in diabetic patients, carbon monoxide poisoning, osteomyelitis and late side effects of radiation therapy. In his position in the Hyperbaric Medicine Department, Van Hulst will focus primarily on the treatment of late side effects of radiation therapy.

Van Hulst is a research physician in the Hyperbaric Medicine and Experimental Anaesthesiology Department at the Academic Medical Center (AMC-UvA). His former posts include navy colonel and doctor, and director of the Medical Expertise Centre/head of the Undersea Medical Centre of the Royal Netherlands Navy. He is currently a reservist colonel doctor at the Netherlands Ministry of Defence and holds a number of advisory positions, including at the Netherlands Underwater Sports Association (Nederlandse Onderwatersport Bond), the Netherlands Forensic Institute and at various international offshore medical committees.