Nathalie Vermeulen was born in Duffel, Belgium in 1981. In July 2004 she obtained the degree of Master in Electrotechnical Engineering - Photonics at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) with greatest distinction. After obtaining a PhD research grant from FWO-Vlaanderen (Research Foundation Flanders) she started her PhD research at the department of Applied Physics and Photonics (TONA) at VUB with Prof. Hugo Thienpont as her promoter. Hereby she investigated both Raman laser sources and mid-infrared solid-state lasers. After her defense in May 2008 she obtained the title of Doctor in Engineering summa cum laude. She then continued her research in the B-PHOT research group at TONA with a FWO PostDoc research grant, and in 2013 she became professor at B-PHOT teaching laser physics.  Nathalie is (co-)author of 28 peer-reviewed journal publications (one of which was an invited paper), 25 conference proceedings, and 3 patents, and she was invited 7 times as "keynote speaker" at international conferences. In 2005 she obtained the master thesis award from the Society of VUB Engineers (V. Ir. Br.) and in 2007 she received the Newport – Spectra-Physics Research Excellence Award as quality recognition for her research presentations. In 2010 she received the European Photonics21 Innovation Award in recognition of “her groundbreaking individual research contributions in the field of optics and photonics.” In 2013 she was awarded a prestigious starting grant from the European Research Council (ERC), which aims at "supporting promising researchers in their frontier research", and she also became coordinator of a European Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) "Young Explorers" project. In 2014 she received the VUB Ignace Vanderschueren prize, and in 2015 she obtained the international LIGHT2015 Young Women in Photonics Award.

 photonics