Barend Mons

Barend Mons is a molecular biologist by training and a leading FAIR data specialist from the Hague, Netherlands. For the first decade of his scientific career, he conducted fundamental research on malaria parasites and later on translational research for malaria vaccines. In 2000, he switched to advanced data stewardship and (biological) systems analytics. He is currently a professor in Leiden, Netherlands and best known for his innovations in scholarly collaboration, especially nanopublications, knowledge graph-based discovery and most recently, the FAIR data initiative and GO FAIR.

Since 2012, he has been a professor in biosemantics in the Department of Human Genetics at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and since May 2022 he has also been at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) in The Netherlands. In 2015, Barend was appointed chair of the High-Level Expert Group on the European Open Science Cloud. In 2017, Barend started the International Support and Coordination office of the GO FAIR initiative. He is also the elected president of CODATA, the standing committee on research data-related issues of the International Science Council. 

Since 2021, Barend is the Scientific Director of the GO FAIR Foundation. Barend is a member of the Netherlands Academy of Technology and Innovation (ACTI). He is also the European representative of the Board on Research Data and Information (BRDI) at the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine in the USA. Barend is a frequent keynote speaker about FAIR and open science around the world. He participates in various scientific advisory boards of international research projects.

Prof. dr. Barend Mons 

ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3934-0072

Human Genetics Department at LUMC & LACDR

President of CODATA

Scientific Director of GO FAIR Foundation

Photo by Mariet Mons Photography