For more than 25 years, she has been investigating the impact of ionizing radiation on health through the development of improvement of radiotherapy treatments for cancer patients and the protection of healthy tissues during cancer treatment such as the cardiovascular system or cognitive functions. She also has an extensive experience in the discovery of innovative biomarkers for radiation response in view of future development of personalized medicine of patients and astronauts. She also contributes to the development of targeted radiopharmaceuticals for better cancer diagnostics and therapy. The final goal of her work is to ensure a better risk prediction and understanding of radiation susceptibility of each individual.

Sarah Baatout is Rapporteur and Belgian representative at the United Nations Scientific Committee on the Effects of Atomic Radiation (UNSCEAR), secretary/treasurer of the European Radiation Research Society (ERRS), and member of two advisory committees to the European Space Agency ([Human Spaceflight & Exploration Science Advisory Committee (HESAC) and European Space Science Committee (ESSC)]. She has been the (co-)promoter of fifteen PhD students and supervised five Postdoctoral students. She is the (co-)author of some 150 international papers. She was awarded the prestigious Wetrems prize by the Royal Academy for Sciences and Arts of Belgium for the best discovery in the field of natural sciences. Recently, she also received the award for the "BeSpacepersonality of the year", a recognition of her research and outreach achievement in the space sector.