Myriam Vermeerbergen is Associate Professor at KU Leuven, where she teaches general linguistics, general sign language linguistics and several courses on (socio)linguistic aspects of Flemish Sign Language (VGT). In the early 1990s, Myriam pioneered research on VGT and the Flemish Deaf community. As an PhD Fellow of the Research Foundation-Flanders (FWO-Vlaanderen) she worked on the very first large-scale analysis of the grammar of Flemish Sign Language. As of 1997, as a postdoctoral researcher, she further explored the grammar of VGT and participated in international cross-linguistic research and sign language typology projects. In 2008, Myriam joined KU Leuven. As chair of the new Flemish Sign Language Language Group, she and her deaf colleagues worked on the integration of Flemish Sign Language in the Bachelor of Applied Language Studies and the Master in Interpreting. They also founded the Postgraduate Programme in Flemish Sign Language Interpreting. KU Leuven is the first and only institution to offer this academic training programme for VGT interpreters. As one of the few linguists interested in Flemish Sign Language, Myriam also participated in sociolinguistic studies, projects related to the Flemish (and South African) Deaf community, and lexicographical work. She was one of the supervisors of the first lexicographical research which formed the basis for the first digital translation dictionary for Flemish Sign Language, (
https://woordenboek.vlaamsegebarentaal.be), and co-supervisor of the Hercules project “Corpus Vlaamse Gebarentaal” (
https://www.corpusvgt.be). Myriam is co-founder and former chair of the Flemish Sign Language Centre, recognised by the Flemish Government as a “knowledge and coordination centre for Flemish Sign Language” (
www.vgtc.be). She is the current vice-chair of the Advisory Committee on Flemish Sign Language. On an international level, she is a founding member and former board member of the Sign Language Linguistics Society (
https://slls.eu) and served several terms as an expert for the World Federation of the Deaf (
https://wfdeaf.org).