Karolien De Wael obtained her PhD as an FWO aspirant at Ghent University in 2005. In 2011, she started her academic career as a research professor (ZAPBOF) at the University of Antwerp. Karolien De Wael serves as the spokesperson for A-Sense Lab (Antwerp Electrochemical and Analytical Sciences Lab), a research group affiliated with the Centre of Excellence NANOlab and the IOF consortium Enviromics. She supervised 27 PhD students. Currently, she chairs the Department of Bioscience Engineering. K. De Wael is coordinating the EU project BorderSens and the iBOF SOCan consortium.