For a year already, corona has been affecting our lives and work. Many people at Ghent University are employing their expertise in research relating to the virus. Some more publicly, and others behind the scenes.
Two alumni look back on their education and the direction they followed. Even though they started on the same road, it ultimately led to other places. Tom and Marie-Astrid both studied medicine at Ghent University.
The corona crisis has forced Marleen Temmerman - gynaecologist, ex-politician, Ghent University researcher and professor - to find creative solutions in her work in Kenya. That work is also her life’s work: improving the rights and lives of women and children. When she talks about it, you hear, above all else, her fighting spirit and faith in a better future.
Ghent University alumnus Tim Leyman won De Nieuwe Lichting, a music competition run by national radio station Studio Brussel, with his band Ramkot. Remarkably, there were two other former students of Ghent University in the finals. Let’s meet these three musical alumni.
Miglena Dikova-Milanova teaches Bulgarian in the faculty of Language and Literature at Ghent University. She has Bulgarian roots, but has been living in Belgium since the 1990’s. “I have rediscovered nature and myself during this period.”
Alex Verhegge graduated from Ghent University in 1969 with a law degree. He launched his career as a lawyer and later combined this with an assistantship at the university. He then became a magistrate, and was ultimately employed at the prosecutor general’s office in the appeal court in Brussels, where he was forced to retire this year.
Ko Delforge is in her last year of secondary school. She used the extra time that was suddenly available for all kinds of creative projects. However, she struggled with the lack of social contact. She compensated by writing lots of letters to friends and family. Little pleasures in a strange year.
Lennert Camp is in his third year of a bachelor’s degree in Dutch-Swedish. He was always going to study Swedish, he says, as not does he like Ikea, but also because he particularly appreciates Sweden, which he discovered while travelling. He thinks the whole country is cool!
Kristien Lemaitre graduated as a doctor from Ghent University in 1998, before specialising as a psychiatrist. After doing the tour of emergency services and hospital units all across Flanders, she trained to be a psychotherapist. She now works in mental healthcare centres and in a group practice.
Christel Moons is a professor of applied ethology and animal welfare. During the first lockdown she didn’t really have time for a new hobby, but in between she’s learned how to install tile skirting boards. “It’s not easy. But I am rather proud that I can do it now.” (laughs)
Patrick Segers is a professor in the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture: “I found it a tough and challenging year, like so many others."
Liessa Engels has been a counsellor at Ghent University for two years. She is there to help students and those who are choosing a course. Fortunately they are finding their way to the online alternatives that Liessa and her colleagues have established this year.
