Dirk Ryckbosch is a senior full professor in particle physics at the University of Ghent. He was Chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy there from 2006 until 2018. Since 2017, he has represented Belgium on the CERN Council, the CERN Finance Committee and the CERN Tripartite Employment Conditions Forum.

He has been active in nuclear physics experiments at most electron accelerators in Europe, including in Saclay, Lund, Amsterdam, Mainz and Bonn. In 1995 he joined the HERMES experiment at the HERA accelerator at DESY (Hamburg), serving as its spokesperson from 2001 to 2003. Since 2005 he has been a member of the IceCube neutrino observatory at the South Pole. In 2007 he brought his research group into the CMS experiment at the LHC. His current research interests are mainly in neutrino physics.

Dirk graduated from Ghent University in 1979 and obtained his PhD from the same university in 1984. In 1989 he obtained his Aggregaat Hoger Onderwijs (habilitation).