They are already well established in elite sports, but amateur athletes are also increasingly using technology to improve their sports performance or prevent injuries. Sports technology is everywhere it seems, but there are pitfalls.
How do microorganisms in polar regions respond to change and what does this teach us in the fight against global warming? For many years, this question has occupied biologist Bjorn Tytgat and the team he is a part of.
Why is one neighbourhood more prone to crime than the next? Can crime be predicted and prevented? Those are the questions that professor Wim Hardyns decided to tackle seventeen years ago.
Acclaimed author, essayist and poet Stefan Hertmans has strong ties to Ghent University as an alumnus, and later as a doctoral student and guest lecturer. To this day, academic research has played a key role in his work, and the foundations for this were laid at Ghent University. "My philosophical education has been essential in my thinking. The university has given me the ability to see a form of truth in doubt."
Ghent University is awarding an honorary doctorate to Christiana Figueres for her tireless commitment to climate action and her unique ability to unite people and nations around a common goal. She has turned her stubborn optimism into a lifestyle.
Around 8% of the world’s population suffers from a rare disease. In Belgium some 800,000 patients are affected. One of them is eighteen-month-old Oliver, who was born blind. He is closely monitored by professor Bart Leroy, whose team has made remarkable progress in the research into rare eye diseases. Still, there are quite a few stumbling blocks as well.
Is it possible to produce metal on the moon? Or other materials enabling us to build a permanent moon base? Professor Inge Bellemans of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture is conducting research into the subject together with her team.
For many people, a daily dose of vitamins and minerals has become part of their everyday routine. Especially in winter we ingest massive quantities of vitamin D because we think it boosts our immune system. But is that accurate and is that daily vitamin pill as innocent as it appears?
Ghent University alumni Rik and Bea wanted to celebrate their most recent birthday with a big party and they had a very clear gift preference: No flowers or chocolates, they wrote in the invitation, but a donation to the Marleen Temmerman Fund of Ghent University. Their fundraising initiative brought in close to €5,000 for the Fund.
In 2023, one in five Belgians was prescribed sleep medication, making Belgium the European leader. “Many people see a sleeping pill as an innocent thing,” says GP and clinical pharmacologist Ellen Van Leeuwen, “but sleeping pills are not sweets.”
In her master’s dissertation, bioengineer Elisa Kooy demonstrated how fish waste could find alternative uses, among others in future generations of rechargeable batteries. Her dissertation landed her the NBN Sustainability Award, which is part of the Flemish Dissertation Award. “The prize is wonderful but the process was even more valuable.”
2024 was a turbulent year, with ongoing military conflicts and geopolitical tensions. And judging by the news reports, 2025 is also shaping up to be a tumultuous year. So what is the status of our security in Europe? Should we be preparing for war?
