Véronique Gouverneur secured a PhD in chemistry at the Université Catholique de Louvain (LLN, Belgium), under the supervision of Professor L Ghosez. In 1992, she moved to a postdoctoral position with Professor R Lerner at the Scripps Research Institute (California, USA). She then took a position of Maître de Conférence at the University Louis Pasteur in Strasbourg (France). She worked with Dr C Mioskowski and was Associate Member of the Institut de Science et d’Ingénierie Supramoléculaires directed by Professor J-M Lehn during this period. Veronique started her independent research career at the University of Oxford in 1998 in the Chemistry Faculty and was promoted to Professor of Chemistry in 2008. Since her appointment in Oxford, she also holds a tutorial fellowship at Merton College Oxford where she teaches organic chemistry. Her research aims at developing new approaches to address long-standing problems in the synthesis of fluorinated molecules including pharmaceutical drugs and probes for imaging (Positron Emission Tomography). She has coordinated European ITN projects, is currently the holder of an Advanced ERC grant, and is the (co)author of > 205 peer-reviewed publications and > 10 patents. Her research has been rewarded by numerous distinctions (e.g. ACS Award for Creative work in Fluorine Chemistry 2015, RSC Tilden Prize 2016, Tetrahedron Chair 2016, Prelog Medal 2019, RSC Organic Stereochemistry Award 2019) and she was elected Fellow of the Royal Society in 2019.