Dirk Inzé is part-time Professor at the Ghent University and Scientific Director of the Department of Plant Systems Biology at the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB) where he heads a group of 280 employees.

Prof. Inzé's ambition is to make the Department of Plant Systems Biology a centre of excellence with emphasis on systems biology of plant growth and development.

Dirk Inzé graduated in 1979 in Zoology at the Ghent University and in 1984 he received his Ph.D. in Zoology from the same university with a thesis on the mechanisms by which Agrobacterium tumefaciens causes the proliferation of plant cells. In 1990, he was appointed Research Director of the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) at the Ghent Joint Laboratory, where he initiated extensive research programs on the cell cycle and cell death in plants. In 1995, he became Professor at the Ghent University. In 1998, he founded the biotechnological research company CropDesign, currently one of the most active players in high-throughput analysis of plant genes in cereals. In 2006, Dirk Inzé founded Solucel together with VTT (Finland), a biotech company dealing with the production of pharmaceuticals in plants. In 1999, he was appointed Deputy Scientific Director of the Department of Plant Systems Biology of the VIB and he became Director of the Department in July 2002.

In 1994, Professor Inzé was laureate of the Körber Stiftung Prize and in 2003 he became EMBO member. In 2005 he was laureate of the Franqui Prize and became elected member of the Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium for Science and Arts. He has served on numerous scientific committees.

Prof. Inzé's research focuses on the understanding of the basic cell cycle machinery in plants and how the cell cycle is regulated by both developmental signals and environmental cues. Prof. Inzé is member of the editorial or advisory boards of Journal of Experimental Botany, Plant Physiology, The Plant Journal, Plant & Cell Physiology, and EMBO Journal. According to a recent survey of ISI Essential Science Indicator (Thomson), he is one of the most cited and influential researchers in his field.