In 2025, several VLIZ staff members received awards.
Dr Ann-Katrien Lescrauwaet, Director of International Relations at VLIZ, received the IODE Achievement Award 2024. The award was presented to her in recognition of her many years of commitment and contribution to the IODE program (International Oceanographic Data and Information Exchange). Ann-Katrien received the distinction, among other things, for her role as a key link between the UNESCO/IOC Project Office for IODE and the IODE network on the one hand, and the Flemish Government (including the Department of Work, Economy, Science, Innovation and Social Economy) on the other.
VLIZ climate researcher Dr Alizée Roobaert was one of the three laureates of the prestigious 2024 Chen Institute and Science Prize for AI-Accelerated Research. This major annual award recognises innovative use of AI to accelerate scientific discovery. The prize is awarded by the Tianqiao and Chrissy Chen Institute and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). Alizée developed an innovative AI solution to monitor ocean-climate dynamics. Alizée Roobaert presented her research at the first annual Chen Institute Symposium for AI-Accelerated Science, held in San Francisco on 27–28 October 2025. Her essay was published in the online edition of the leading scientific journal Science.
Leen Vandepitte, project manager at the VLIZ Data Centre and coordinator of the World Register of Marine Species (WoRMS), won an Ocean Biodiversity Information System (OBIS) Community Hero Award in 2025. She received the award for her outstanding contribution to bringing together and making biodiversity data from the open ocean available. It recognised her work in collaboration, data sharing, building knowledge and skills, and engaging the community. It was the first time OBIS had presented this award.
Dr Gert Everaert, Deputy Research Director and Head of VLIZ’s Ocean and Human Health research group, received the ‘Laureate of the Class of Natural Sciences’ award in 2025 - one of the most prestigious prizes of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and the Arts (KVAB).
Dr Arianna Olivelli, a postdoctoral researcher at VLIZ, won the ‘Janet Watson Prize for Excellence in Research’ in 2025 for her doctoral work on isotope geochemistry, awarded by the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London.