Dr Dirk Valkenborg has an extensive academic and research background. He received his M.Sc. in Electrotechnical and Mathematical Engineering in 2004 from K.U.Leuven and his Ph.D. in Mathematics and Statistical Bioinformatics from the University of Hasselt in 2008, followed by an M.Sc. in Biostatistics in 2009. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at K.U.Leuven and later joined VITO as a corporate scientist. He co-founded the Center for Proteomics at the University of Antwerp and focuses on statistical bioinformatics and data analysis in 'omics' research. Since 2015, he has been a professor at the University of Antwerp and is currently a professor in bioinformatics at Hasselt University, specializing in computational methodologies for 'omics' data analysis and data integrity.