Linda M. Thienpont, PhD is Prof. Emeritus from Ghent University (Belgium). She is now involved in “Thienpont & Stöckl Wissenschaftliches Consulting GbR” (Germany). During her academic life, she focused her main research interests on development/implementation of standardization/harmonization concepts, and improvement of clinical laboratory measurements. In this area, she has published over 180 peer reviewed papers. All the mass spectrometric reference measurement procedures (for substrates/metabolites, 25OH-vitamin D, total and free steroid and thyroid hormones) she developed are listed in the Database of the Joint Committee for Traceability in Laboratory Medicine (JCTLM) (see: http://www.bipm.org/). With her reference laboratory (still continuing at Ghent University under the name Ref4U) she offered reference laboratory services and consultancy to all major globally operating IVD manufacturers, who in turn participated and still do in projects chaired by her, e.g., the here described project of the IFCC Committee for Standardization of Thyroid Function Tests.
Previous international standardization programs in which she served were from the European Commission-BCR, ADA–EASD, CAP, CEQAL, and the Vitamin D Standardization Program (NIH–ODS, together with CDC and NIST). Other responsibilities were: founding member and co-chair of the JCTLM, chairholder of the CLSI C45-A guideline, member of the AACC Harmonization Oversight Group. She still serves on the Editorial Board of Clinical Chemistry.
She was recipient of the Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics oral Communication prize (2008), the IFCC-Robert Schaffer Award for Outstanding Achievements in the Development of Standards for Use in Laboratory Medicine (2011), the EQALM Adam Uldall Award of Appreciation for her Unique Contribution to the Field of External Quality Assurance in Laboratory Medicine (2013), the MSACL Distinguished Contribution Award in Recognition of Achievements Made in the Field of Clinical Mass Spectrometry that have Furthered the Advancement of Knowledge and Implementation of Science for the Benefit of Humanity (2015), and the Westgard Quality Award in Recognition of her Special Contribution to the Field of Quality within Laboratory Medicine (The Quality in the Spotlight Conference 2016). She was honored as “Inspiring Mind” in the October 2015 issue of Clinical Chemistry.