InspiringFifty Belgium, the non-profit organisation, aiming to increase the number of women in leadership positions in the technology sector, announced the 50 Leading Belgian Women in the field. Prof. Liesbet Geris, a scientist from the ONTOX project, is amongst them.
The jury of InspiringFifty Belgium chose the most inspirational 50 women from 173 overall nominees in the 2022 edition. We are thrilled that one of them is Prof. Liesbet Geris, one of ONTOX’s successful scientists. Awardees were revealed at the ceremony on 6 October 2022.
Broad expertise in silico
Liesbet Geris is Head of the Biomechanical Engineering Laboratory within the In silico Medicine Unit (GIGA) and a professor at the Faculty of Applied Sciences. She is a Collen-Francqui Research Professor in Biomechanics and Computational Tissue Engineering at the University of Liège and KU Leuven in Belgium.
Prof. Geris is also the scientific coordinator of the Prometheus platform for Skeletal Tissue Engineering and the current executive director of the Virtual Physiological Human Institute. She advocates using in silico modelling in healthcare through liaising with the clinical community, the European Commission and Parliament, regulatory agencies and other stakeholders in this position.
Her research focuses on the multi-scale and multi-physics modelling of biological processes. She uses these models to investigate the aetiology of non-healing fractures together with her team and industrial collaborators. Moreover, Prof. Geris and her team design in silico potential cell-based treatment strategies and optimises the manufacturing processes of these tissue engineering constructs.
In the ONTOX project, Prof. Geris contributes to the work dedicated to the biological domain and data integration, ontology and artificial intelligence. She leads the establishment of the quantitative physiological maps for the liver, kidneys, and developing brain and ontologies for the selected systemic, repeated dose toxicity effects.
The InspiringFifty Belgium 2022
InspiringFifty Belgium aims to increase the visibility and recognition of women in the Belgian tech industry. Announcing a list of the 50 most inspiring Belgian tech women every two years is one of the organisation’s significant achievements. InspiringFifty also offers a network of like-minded people and organises training courses and initiatives to increase the number of women in tech.
InspiringFifty Belgium was launched in 2019 by Elke Kraemer and Joëlle Frijters, motivated by the eponymous program that originated in 2013 and was founded in a dozen countries worldwide. InspiringFifty is part of the EQL:HER organisation that works to improve diversity in the tech industry by highlighting women leaders in tech.