Bernadette Van Ryssen graduated at the Ghent University, Belgium, in 1988. After a two year internship, she received a research grant of the Flemish Institution of Science and Technology (IWT). She finished her PhD on 'Arthroscopy for the Diagnosis and Treatment of Osteochondrosis in the Dog', at Ghent University in 1996. Since 2000 she is Professor in Small Animal Orthopedics and is responsible of that Department at the Ghent University. From 2012-2014 she was President of the European Society for Veterinary Orthopedics and Traumatology. Her special interests are arthroscopy and arthrology in small animals.