On February 23, three Ghent University alumni walked the red carpet in Hollywood to receive a prestigious award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, known for the Oscars.
This summer it was hard to miss: at Ghent University you would soon be able to take a “Taylor Swift-class”. A storm of reactions blew up, the crackle could be heard all the way to the United States. In the eye of the storm: professor Elly McCausland and her elective course Literature (Taylor’s version). “It was a lot, but I’ve grown quite a thick skin.”
The role of alumni within any university is not to be underestimated. “Our contact with ex-students is immensely important for so many reasons: research, education, reputation, talent management and more besides…. ,” maintains Emeritus Professor Kristiaan Versluys.
Six months ago, Anja Peumans made the decision: she changed her will so that part of her inheritance would go to the Ghent University Animal Clinic. “I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. Finally, I thought, I can fulfil my dream after I am gone”.
Serhat Yildirim (26) just completed his final exams in medicine after which he will start at the prestigious Harvard University. He was admitted for the two-year master's degree in Global Health Delivery.
Ghent university has a global network. Through international research projects, collaboration agreements with other universities, exchange programmes, ... And also through its many alumni, who fly off in all directions after their studies.
Marc Van Montagu, one of the founders of biotechnology, writes a letter to his 17-year-old self. 17. What advice does he have for the young Marc? A lad from a working class district in Ghent who in October 1951 took his first steps in the scientific world.
Catherine De Bolle has earned the right to call herself Ghent University Alumnus of the Year 2023. As the chief of Europol, she sees an important role for universities in the modernisation of the police service.
Helena Van Tichelen was in secondary school when the school strikes and marches around climate change erupted. Years later, she has not lost the commitment she picked up then. In mid-November, she put aside the lessons and courses of her third bachelor in bioengineering to travel to Egypt for the largest climate conference in the world: COP27.
Marleen Temmerman has long been recognised as a global authority on the subject of women’s rights and -healthcare, due to her unwavering fight to promote them. Now, she has been elected a brand-new member of the National Academy of Medicine in further recognition of outstanding achievements. As the first Belgian female in history.
For researcher Moniek de Jong, the energy that we use every day isn’t just a basic necessity. She takes a deeper look at the invisible game that lies at its basis, whereby countries become tangled in dependency relationships. “Energy determines the contours of all geopolitics.”
Olexiy Lyamtsev works at the Faculty of Science at the moment. There, he is a beekeeper at Honeybee Valley, a research group led by Professor Dirk de Graaf which focuses on the declining bee population in the wild. Besides this, he is also charged with making an inventory of the museum collection at the Eva Crane Trust, a knowledge centre for beekeeping.
