Hannes Lowagie obtained a PhD in history from Ghent University in 2012. Since then, he has worked at the Royal Library of Belgium (KBR): the national library that preserves and researches millions of heritage items. He researched medieval coins, worked in the digitisation department, and then took charge of the implementation of a new library management system.

Today, he is head of the Agency for Bibliographic Information. There, he is responsible for the catalographic processing of all incoming publications. The aim is to present the information on these documents in the most structured and correct way possible, so that users quickly find what they are looking for. In this context, he is constantly looking for ways to make processing more efficient. He investigates how artificial intelligence can be used in work processes, both for describing and unlocking historical documents and recent publications.