1978 - ° Ghent, Belgium
2000 - MSc biology (zoology), Ghent University, Belgium
2002 - MSc environmental sciences, Ghent University, Belgium
2007 - PhD biology (zoology), Ghent University, Belgium
2007 to present - senior scientist / herpetologist at Flemish Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)

My professional focus is on the conservation of the EU protected herpetofauna occurring in Flanders, Belgium. This includes policy supporting research and breeding programmes (mainly common midwife toad Alytes obstetricans and common spadefoot toad Pelobates fuscus)), as well as containment and eradication of alien amphibian and reptile species (including African clawed frog Xenopus laevis and Chinese beauty snake Elaphe taeniura).

I am the first author of a 2016 field guide on European amphibians and reptiles (see menu item 'The book'). I am the chair of the HYLA herpetological group (part of the largest local environmental NGO, Natuurpunt) in Flanders, Belgium, and a member of the Mapping Committee and the Taxonomic Committee of the Societas Europeae Herpetologica (i.e. the European herpetological society). Conducting capture-mark-recapture research on a local population of the fire salamander Salamandra salamandra since 2008 is one of my pet projects.