Ilse Rovers completed Environmental Science at the Biology department of Nijmegen University, and finished her studies in Environmental management at West-Brabant polytechnic (now part of Avans University of applied sciences) . The combination of these two environmental studies, but always from the biological point of view, ensures Ilse always takes nature into account when thinking of the physical environment, whether this is in spatial planning, material development or education. This also shows in her expertise on ecology, biomimicry and fungal material research in particular. In the latter, Ilse focusses in her PhD research on material properties from fungal materials that haven not been applied yet, but that ecologically have potential considering the environmental conditions in which they thrive. Ilse combines a scientific basis with an experinmental approach, without a clear end-goal, bu with room for surprise. She works on projects that contribute to sustainability, nature and health, with a focus on building materials. Ilse teaches biology course and biomimicry tools at Avans Academy for Life Sciences and Technology (ALST) and she is researcher in the MNEXT group Biobased Building.