Freya Blekman received her MSc at Nikhef/University of Amsterdam on R&D for the LHCb experiment. Her PhD, also with Nikhef but mostly based in the US at Fermilab, was spent on the D0 experiment where she worked on the then recently discovered top quark. Blekman joined the CMS experiment in 2005, and worked on the construction and startup of the experiment as a postdoctoral researcher at Imperial College London and Cornell University. Blekman has been doing top quark physics for over 20 years and has led multiple large physics and working groups at CERN, focusing on tracking(pixel) detectors, and searches for physics beyond the Standard Model, with top quarks having an important role in her own research. Blekman is professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and a visiting professor at the University of Oxford.  She is currently the Physics Communications Officer of all physics results by the CMS Collaboration and a member of the physics coordination team of the Future Circular e+e- Collider.

Blekman started doing science communication as an undergraduate physics student and for example was already part of the “University of Amsterdam Science Fair" team that presented physics experiments during the CERN 40th anniversary events in 1994. She has a wide experience in public speaking, print and social media, and workshops for varied general audiences, in the Netherlands, the Geneva region, the USA, Great Britain and Belgium. Blekman has been coordinating the IPPOG masterclasses in Brussels since her appointment as faculty in 2010, is responsible for the Belgian teachers programme and has been involved with CMS tours since 2005. In 2016 Blekman received the Science Communication year prize of the Belgian Academy of Science and Arts for her activities on the communication of physics on social media.

Blekman is a leading scientist at DESY and professor at the Universität Hamburg. In addition she holds roles as visiting professor at the University of Oxford and Vrije Universiteit Brussel.  She is currently the Physics Communications Officer of all physics results by the CMS Collaboration and a member of the physics coordination team of the Future Circular e+e- Collider