Katrien Van pellicom studied Germanic Languages at the KU Leuven. Her final thesis involved researching the naming of Leuven foundlings from the Dutch Period in Belgium (1815-1830).
Katrien started working for the Dutch Language Institute (INT) in 2002, as scientific researcher and as a member of the editing team of the Dictionary of Contemporary Dutch (ANW). She became the editor of the Word List of the Dutch Language (Woordenlijst Nederlandse Taal) in 2005 and she has been the Spelling project manager since 2006. Her work includes acting as advisor for the official spelling committee (Commissie Spelling) and she is responsible for keeping the official spelling reference (published and online version) up to date. In relation to this, she compiles selections of headwords, stays involved in substantive matters and answers spelling-related questions from the public. Additionally, she contributes to keeping current materials up to date and she works on linking several projects within GiGaNT, a computational lexicon of the Dutch language from the sixth century up to the present.
Since 2018, she has been a member of the working group Persoonsnamen of the Union for the Dutch Language’s committee of Anderstalige namen in het Nederlands.