Dirk Inzé received his PhD at Ghent in 1984. In 1995, he became Professor at Ghent University and he was the scientific founder of the biotechnology company CropDesign. From 2002 to 2023, Dirk was the Director of the Center for Plant Systems Biology of the biotechnology institute VIB. Under his directorship, it became one of the world leading centers for advanced plant sciences. Dirk’s research was recognized by numerous awards and he is a member of several science advisory boards. He currently owns, for the second time, an advanced ERC grant on a highly innovative project that combines multiplex gene editing and plant breeding (known as BREEDIT) . In 2017, Dirk was awarded with the prestigious World Agriculture Prize. In 2020 he was elected to be a member of Academia Europaea. In 2021, Dirk was appointed member of the Science Council of the ERC. He is the chairperson of EU-SAGE, a consortium of 158 European plant research institutes advocating for the use of Gene Editing for a sustainable agriculture (www.eu-sage.com).