Deirdre is an associate professor at the Department of Pharmaceutical and Pharmacological Sciences at the University of Leuven (KU Leuven, Belgium). She has a Master in Bio-engineering and a PhD in Chemical Engineering. Her current research is directed towards a deeper understanding of the fundamentals of liquid chromatography, the evaluation of novel supports in chromatography, the analysis of complex samples in pharmaceutical, bio-analytical and environmental applications, retention modeling and solutions for automated method development. She has published over 80 peer-reviewed papers and book chapters, and is currently the promoter of 7 PhD students. She received the LCGC Emerging Leader in Chromatography Award in 2017, will receive the Chromatographic Society Jubilee Medal from the Chromatographic Society of the UK in 2020 and is an editor of Journal of Chromatography A since 2018. Since 2012, she is also a member of the organizing and scientific committee of the HTC conference series.