"The impact of the polycrisis the world is currently facing, urges researchers and scientists to take an ethical stance. What kind of society do we envision and want to support through our work? By changing practices together with public, private and civic partners, we can open up ourselves, society and existing practices to other ways of seeing and knowing; to acting in the 'minor key', fostering open-endedness, imagination, and experimentation to deal with complexity. By jointly navigating and designing for transforming societies, we can work towards just, sustainable and beautiful futures."

Caroline Hummels is professor Design and Theory for Transforming Practices at the department of Industrial Design at the Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e). As a highly innovative thinker and practitioner, she is redefining the boundaries of industrial design and its intersections with engineering, computer science, philosophy, psychology, educational science, organisation science, and art. She develops alternative practices for societal transformation, addressing key societal challenges such as climate change, polarisation and healthcare, by interweaving cutting-edge academic theories with forward-looking practical applications. By leveraging emerging technologies and co-designing in collaboration with public, private and civic partners, she catalyses ecosystems, e.g. through the design-infused transformation movement d.centre|EU, into transforming existing practices into just, sustainable and beautiful ones.

Caroline has published many influential papers and books, gave worldwide more than 150 invited lectures and workshops and created dozens of products, methods, tools and exhibitions, that have been widely recognized and appreciated by peers. She supervised hundreds of BA, MA and PhD students who are now making outstanding contributions to the field. She received various awards, including being 12 years amongst the most influential women in the Brainport area, and obtaining substantial research and valorisation funding from public and private organisations. Furthermore, she has served on numerous advisory boards, contributing to strategy, policymaking and public debate, such as being the chair of the initial Knowledge Council EIT Culture & Creativity, member of the Scientific Advisory Board Aalto University, advisor Broad Prosperity for the Province Noord-Brabant, and ambassador of CLIKCNL’s Key Enabling Methodologies (co-creation & participation). She is associate editor of the Journal of Human Technology Relations, editorial board member of the International Journal of Design, and founder and steering committee member of the Tangible Embedded, and Embodied Interaction (TEI) conference.

Her ability to translate complex ideas into accessible formats—through workshops, lectures, visuals and public discourse—has made her a respected voice in research, education and policy development both nationally and internationally.

Caroline Hummels holds cum laude MSc and PhD degrees in Industrial Design from Delft University of Technology (TU Delft). After obtaining her PhD in 1993, she took a position as Assistant Professor in the Form Theory group at TU Delft. In 2006, she moved to Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e) to take the position of Associate Professor in the Designing Quality in Interaction (DQI) group and later in 2011 of Full Professor, while heading the DQI group (2011-2017). At TU/e, she also served as Director of Education of the Industrial Design department (2008-2011), was focus area leader Healthy Daily Living of the interdepartmental strategic area Engineering Health (2011-2019), and thought leader Smart Societies within the interdepartmental program Smart Cities (2017-2020). From 2004-2016, she was founder and owner of ID-dock, a small design research consultancy firm.