Johann Marquez-Barja is a Professor at University of Antwerp and imec. He is leading Programmable & Intelligent Networks at IDLab, which is a group of both UAntwerp and imec. In 2024 he was ranked among the World Top 2% Researchers in the area of Telecoms networks and Artificial Intelligence (Stanford/Elsevier). He also leads The ABC of 5G initiative, a collaborative joint effort of VUB, UGent, and UAntwerp. He is heavily actively in the European and International arena of 5G and 6G, leading and participating in several consortia. In BEL6GICA he contributes with intelligent softwarisation for 6G, and supports central coordination.