Hello and welcome to my personal webpage. I am an astronomy professor and researcher at the departement of astronomy of KU Leuven in Belgium, where I work towards finding scientific answers to some of the most intriguing questions about our universe. My interest in astronomy started at a young age and has led me to dedicate my career to exploring the cosmos. I am particularly fascinated by the Fermi paradox and its unsatisfactory interpretations, which has inspired me to use the largest telescopes across the globe (e.g., Chile, Arizona, Hawaii, California) to capture images of nearby planetary systems and discover new worlds. My research background covers the entire process of observational astronomy, from instrument development and commissioning to data reduction and acquisition software, observations, data interpretation, and publication of results. One of my long-term goals is to make direct images of distant rocky worlds and search for signs of biological activity on their surface.