Patrick De Clercq is an agricultural entomologist (PhD, 1993) and Full Professor in the Department of Plants and Crops at Ghent University, Belgium. His research focuses on the biological and integrated management of arthropod pests in agriculture, with particular emphasis on the use of predatory insects and mites in augmentative biological control programmes. His main research interests include the mass rearing and quality assessment of beneficial arthropods, as well as the environmental risk assessment of biological control agents. He teaches several courses related to crop protection and integrated pest management at the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering of Ghent University.