Barend Mons is professor in Biosemantics at the LUMC and also a board member of the Leiden Centre of Data Science. He is one of the founders of the FAIR principles for Open Science and the concept of Data Stewardship. In 2015 he was the chair of the High Level Expert Group of the European Commission on the European Open Science Cloud. he is currently the scientific director of the international office of GO FAIR, situated in the ‘Poortgebouw’ building of the LUMC campus.

More information about Barend Mons

Barend Mons is professor in Biosemantics at the LUMC and also a board member of the Leiden Centre of Data Science. He is one of the founders of the FAIR principles for Open Science and the concept of Data Stewardship. In 2015 he was the chair of the High Level Expert Group of the European Commission on the European Open Science Cloud. he is currently the scientific director of the international office of GO FAIR, situated in the ‘Poortgebouw’ building of the LUMC campus.

Biosemantics

Biosemantics is a new approach characterised by computer-assisted knowledge discovery. With this approach machines can perform close to associative ‘thinking’ This line is now stongly routed in the Dutch National Science Agenda.

Academic career

Barend Mons did his PhD in Leiden (1986). His dissertation was on basic biology and genetics of malaria parasites. He continued this line of research for over a decade in Leiden and at TNO. After periods at the European Commission and in industry, Barend returned to Leiden, where his inaugural speech, accepting the chair in Bisoemantics was held at 25-02-2013. The title of his inaugural lecture was ‘Knowledge is like Love….it multiplies when shared’.

Prizes and honourable appointments

Barend received the Eyckman medal for his research in Malaria and is a member of numerous international scientific boards.

Global Open FAIR initiative

The Global Open FAIR initiative is a rapidly expanding international consortium, aimed at the Internet of FAIR data and Services, initially supported by the Dutch, the German and the French governments.