J. Verbeeck obtained an engineering degree in electronics in 1996 and obtained a PhD in physics in 2004. He became professor in electron microscopy at UAntwerp in 2013 and promoted to full professor in 2018. He is co-leading the EMAT group with a diverse international population of over 80 researchers at the top of international research in electron microscopy for materials science. His current research interests focus on electron wavefront shaping, electron energy loss spectroscopy and novel detection schemes for low dose imaging. He has published over 300 papers, resulting in over 12000 citations built (WoS H-factor 51, GS H-factor 62) under orcid id: 0000-0002-7151-8101. He is a very regular invited speaker on international conferences (e.g. in 2023 MC Darmstadt, M&M Minneapolis, IMC20 Busan, CENS Venice, MRS Boston. In 2024 PICO Vaalsbroek, FEMMS Catania, EDGE Vancouver, European Microscopy Congress Copenhagen,) with over 50 invited talks given. In 2011 he received the prestigious Ernst Ruska prize for the realisation of electron vortex beams.