Bas Heijman was born in Heerlen. After finishing secondary school (Atheneum, Stedelijk Lyceum en Havo, Maastricht), he began his study of Molecular Sciences at the Agricultural University of Wageningen in September 1976. After a few years of teaching at the School for horticulture in Nijmegen, in 1987 he began his PhD research at the Technical University in Eindhoven. His PhD thesis was about the stability of titanium dioxide pigments in water-based paints.

In 1991, he started at Kiwa water Research in Nieuwegein, conducting research on beneficial application of drinking water sludge. Other research topics included adsorption on activated carbon, ion exchange, ultrafiltration and nanofiltration.

In 2003, he joined the group of professor Hans van Dijk for two days a week as a teacher and researcher. His main research fields are membrane filtration and new treatment concepts for drinking water production. In 2009 he accepted a full time position as associate professor.