Ileana Hanganu-Opatz was trained as biochemist and biologist at the University of Bucharest, Romania and graduated in 1998 with a EU-funded diploma thesis achieved at University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf (UKE). She started the investigation of developing neuronal networks during a PhD at the University of Düsseldorf and a postdoctoral stage at INSERM / INMED Marseille, France. Since 2009, Ileana Hanganu-Opatz established her own research group at the ZMNH, UKE to study the development of neuronal networks of cognitive processing, being supported by the Emmy Noether Program of the German Research Foundation, an ERC Consolidator Grant and BMBF. Since 2017 she leads the Institute for Developmental Neurophysiology at UKE and since 2022 she has been appointed as Director of the Hamburg Center of Excellence. Ileana Hanganu-Opatz coordinates several national consortia, such as the Priority Program 1665 and the Research Unit 5159. As member of the Committee for Higher Education and Training (CHET) of FENS, she contributed to establishment of large-scale training programs that optimally fit the needs of next-generation neuroscientists. As founding member of the FENS Kavli Network of Excellence, Ileana initiated a series of educational events at European level to coach the future principal investigators.