Tijs Goldschmidt researched the evolution and ecology of a family of fish known as the cichlids in Lake Victoria in East Africa between 1981 and 1986, as a member of a group of researchers from Leiden University. He reports on this in narrative form in his first novel, Darwin's Dreampond (1997; Dutch edition, 1996). Since then, he has concluded his university career and turned full time to writing. His other publications include a collection of essays reflecting on nature and culture entitled Oversprongen (2000), the expanded lecture De andere linkerkant (The Other Left Side, 2003) and the essay "Looking Away" (2004), which accompanied a photo exhibition of the same name which he guest-curated at the Frans Hals Museum in Haarlem, the Netherlands.