Nele Moelans obtained her PhD in 2006 and is currently a professor at the Department of Materials Science at KU Leuven. Her research focuses on calculating and predicting microstructures and material processes on a microscopic scale, using thermodynamic and kinetic models, numerical simulations and, increasingly, data-based and advanced artificial intelligence models. She is also programme director of the Materials Science programme at the Faculty of Engineering Sciences at KU Leuven.