Gudrun Janssens studied Chemistry with a specialization in environmental sciences in the city of Ghent in Belgium. She graduated with honors, after completing her thesis on cyanobacterial toxins at the University of the Orange Free State in the Republic of South Africa. After a two-year working period at the environmental department of Belgium's main electricity supplier, she started working at the Public Waste Agency of Flanders.

As senior policy advisor she has been outlining the policy on ships' waste management and ship recycling for over ten years now. Her main assignments are:

• Following-up the implementation and the effect of the port reception facilities (PRFs) directive 2000/59/EC for ship-generated waste and cargo residues;
• Implementing MARPOL requirements related to ship generated waste & PRFs;
• Implementing the Rhine Treaty on ship generated waste from inland navigation;
• Outlining the Belgian policy regarding IMO's Hong Kong Convention and the European Ship Recycling Regulation, taking into account other international Conventions such as the Basel Convention and Waste Shipment Regulation.