Sophie Goelen is a Belgian national who graduated as a law student at the Catholic University of Leuven in 2008. During her legal studies, she went to France to the Université Lille II de Droit et Santé in the framework of the Erasmus program to deepen her knowledge on the different aspects of European law and international criminal law in French.

When her general education in law finished in Belgium, she was faced with the question where to pursue further academic interests. As international trade law and the different dynamics this produces in developed and developing countries were always of great importance to her, she decided to enroll herself into the IELPO LL.M. program at the University of Barcelona. There she developed more affinity with the different concerns trade creates. And more specifically, she acquired a deep interest in the problems TRIPS has raised over the years. Therefore her research paper will be written about the difficulties the concept of genetic resources generates and more specifically, what this concept actually encompasses.

Sophie Goelen is furthermore interested in foreign politics and economics and their historical roots, culture and sports. She's also involved in an organization that provides charity to mentally handicapped people, for which she organizes and coordinates events and takes administrative and financial duties upon her. By now she speaks fluently Dutch, which is her mother tongue, French and English; she has a basic knowledge of German; and now she's also studying Spanish.