Iris Steenhout (ORCID-ID: 0000-0002-0585-8423) is affiliated as a professor (20%) with the Erasmus University College Brussels Health Care, Design & Technology) and the Free University of Brussels (Fulltime), where she also works as a post-doctoral researcher within the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy (Research in Digital Medicine) and is connected to the Faculty of Law and Criminology (Crime & Society). Iris has a multidisciplinary background in computer science, criminology, and engineering.

Her research area focuses on aggression in public transportation and the healthcare sector. In the past, Iris conducted research on aggression against train conductors and the dark number problem surrounding reports. Additionally, as part of an Innoviris project, she performed a hotspot analysis of reports in FixMyStreet for Schaerbeek. Within her doctorate, she conducted a content analysis of more than one million messages, using innovative machine learning techniques among others. Today she builds several predictive models for the health sector.

She has numerous publications in international books and peer-reviewed journals and has presented her findings at various expert seminars. Her work regularly receives media attention, including VRT News, VTM News, and De Standaard. Her research domain focuses on aggression in public transportation and the healthcare sector. Iris has published in various international books and peer-reviewed journals and has presented her findings at numerous expert seminars. She is frequently invited as a speaker at seminars and debates due to her expertise in the field of aggression. She was previously a member of the Board of Directors of the VUB and is currently an active member of the national Working Group on Aggression in Healthcare, the Aggression Commission, and various councils within the VUB.