She received her BSc (2002) and MSc (2005) degrees in Aerospace Engineering from the Delft University of Technology, and her PhD (2010) from the von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics in cooperation with the University of Antwerp. Afterwards she was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Turbulence Research at Stanford University and a Research Professor at the von Karman Institute funded by a Pegasus Marie Curie fellowship. Before returning to Stanford she was an Assistant Professor in the Department of Civil Engineering & Engineering Mechanics at Columbia University.