Ellen Peerenboom currently serves as the Managing Director for the International Academic Forum, Heidelberg University (IWH) and is responsible for strategic management of the Institution. Furthermore, she also works at the RTG Big Data Research in the Biosciences where she helps identifying and matching research tandems of prospective Principal Investigators. She also plays a vital role in networking by organizing conferences such as summer schools and network meetings and by setting up the RTG Big Data Research webpage.

Ellen graduated in Biology from the University of Cologne and later earned her Doctorate from the same University doing the research for her thesis at the esteemed Max Planck Institute for Plant Breeding Research (MPIZ) in Cologne. She specialized in Molecular Biology and holds a diverse portfolio in academic and scientific management mostly in leadership positions. As part of her Postdoctoral study she also stayed in England to conduct postdoctoral research. Additionally, she has rich experience as a science journalist in print- , electronic and radio media. She has been associated with Deutsche Welle (DW), Deutschland Radio and BBC. Moreover, she has also contributed to the news section of different research publications such as Biofuture (France), Nature Biotechnology and Nature Medicine. Furthermore, she has also worked as Press and Public Relations Officer for various renowned organizations that include, MPIZ, Leibnitz Institute for Plant Biochemistry (IPB, Halle, Germany), EMBO and Helmholtz Association. In in these positions she has also played a key role in establishing linkages nationwide and abroad.