Martine J. Piccart, MD, PhD, is Professor of Oncology at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and Director of Medicine at the Jules Bordet Institute, in Brussels, Belgium.  Earning her medical degrees at the ULB and oncology qualifications in New York and London, she is also member of the Belgian Royal Academy of Medicine.

With a primary interest in breast cancer and drug development, Dr. Piccart is a leader in international research collaboration and is the principal or co-principal investigator of many clinical trials, including HERA, MINDACT and ALTTO. She is co-founder and Chair of the Breast International Group (BIG), uniting 49 academic research groups from around the world and running over 30 trials under its umbrella. BIG’s research programmes include the European Commission supported TRANSBIG consortium of 28 institutions in 11 countries (running with the EORTC the MINDACT trial) and NeoBIG, an innovative biomarker and drug development programme focused on neo-adjuvant trials.

Dr. Piccart was President of ESMO (2012-2013) and ECCO (2014-2015). She is a member of the ESMO Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale Working Group and active in numerous professional organisations. She is a former president of EORTC and served on the ASCO Board.

(Co) author of more than 390 publications in peer-reviewed journals, she has received numerous prestigious awards for her research contributions including the Jill Rose Award (New York), the William L. McGuire Award (San Antonio) and, recently, the Umberto Veronesi Award for the Future Fight against Cancer (Cancun).