Barlag holds a PhD in physics from the University of Amsterdam (1984). Between 1983 and 1989 she worked as a researcher at CERN, more specific in the Obelix experiment for LEAR, as part of the collaborative charm hadroproduction experiment for Super Proton Synchrotron (SPS) as well as in DELPHI for LEP. After Cern in 1989 and until 2006 she worked at the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute.
Barlag got married in 1987 and has two children. She works as a quality control manager in an international high-tech firm and is a member of national (2002–present), European (2007–present) and international (2011–present) athletics federations.[2][3]