Luuk Rietveld is professor of Urban Water Cycle Technology at the Sanitary Engineering Section of Delft University of Technology. After finalizing his studies in Civil Engineering at Delft University of Technology in 1987, he worked until 1987 as Assistant and later as Associate expert for the Dutch Directorate General for International Co-operation in Mozambique. During that period, he was employed as lecturer/researcher of Sanitary Engineering at the Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo, Mozambique.

Between 1991 and 1994, he worked at the Management Centre for International Co-operation, Delft University of Technology. Since 1994 he has worked at the Department of Water Management, in the Sanitary Engineering Section of Delft University of Technology.

In 2005, Luuk Rietveld defended his PhD thesis entitled "Improving Operation of Drinking Water Treatment through Modelling".