Ilse Noens studied orthopedagogy at KU Leuven and obtained her doctorate at Leiden University. After her PhD, she worked as a postdoc at Massachusetts General Hospital (Harvard University) in Boston and as a lecturer-researcher at Leiden University. In 2007 she returned to her alma mater, KU Leuven. She is professor of remedial education and coordinates the interdisciplinary consortium Leuven, Autism Research (LAuRes). She is also responsible for and works in PraxisP, the clinical expertise center of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences. She has more than twenty years of experience in researching autism from an orthopedagogical perspective. She is the initiator and promoter of the Academic Workplace Autism, where research is being done in consultation with the autism community into the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for children, young people and adults with autism and their loved ones. She is a member of the Board of Directors of LAVA-vzw, whose main objective is to stimulate participatory research in Flanders and beyond.