We are nearing the end of this strange and special year, 2020. Time to reflect on the status quo. 20 people with links to Ghent University were selected at random.
For the last two years, Annelies Van Isacker has been a job coach at Divergent, an organisation within Ghent University which helps to guide people with their reintegration in the workplace.
For Yanis Peters, 2020 was the year he found love: he finally embarked on his great passion - maths - at Ghent University. And he also found true love, when corona brought him and his girlfriend together.
Three 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. Benjamin Dalle, Yasmina El Kaddouri, and Gillis Ooghe all studied law at Ghent University. All three defend interests, albeit from a different angle.
Yannick Christiaens is educational supervisor at the Department of Industrial Systems Engineering and Product Design. He takes us to the product development studio at Campus Kortrijk.
Historian John Latham Sprinkle discovered quite by chance the location of the lost city of Magas, as the capital of the medieval kingdom of Alania. Although it might not be. In fact, you can never be sure, according to John Latham Sprinkle.
Might soft drinks’ machines with no cans soon become the norm? That’s certainly what a few student entrepreneurs are planning. They’ve developed an ecological and healthy drinks machine where you can fill your reusable-drinking bottle with soft drinks. One of the creators is Colin Deblonde, a young entrepreneur who studies applied economics at Ghent University.
Three alumni look back at their time in education and the road they eventually chose. In effect, even though they started on the same path, it took them to different places. Caroline Landsheere, Anja Goethals and Bas Bogaerts all studied archaeology. The passion for the past is still there, even though it doesn’t play as big a role as before for each of them.
Modern biotechnology in agriculture is a much-discussed topic. Geert De Jaeger is both a professor at UGent and a plant biologist. Ghent University alumni Dirk Holemans is a coordinator of the social-economic thinktank Oikos and a former politician for Groen – the Flemish green party. They are on opposite sides of the spectrum when it comes to the use of modern biotechnology in agriculture. This leads to a lively debate with the most important conclusion being that: they agree to disagree.
A year ago, Professor Frederik Anseel flew to the other side of the world to live in Sydney. The business school where he now works has about 300 professors. In the meantime, he had also taken on the role of talent management commissioner at Ghent University. Frederik’s ambition: to see as much of the (research) world as possible and learn from it.
A real gem, that's what the library of the Faculty of Architecture and Engineering is. Of course, it was also designed by two of the most promising architects in Belgium today: David Van Severen en Kersten Geers, two Ghent University alumni.
What Is it to be human? This is the question which Alicja Gescinska is attempting to answer. The Flemish philosopher with Polish roots does this through philosophy, but also by creating television programmes and writing novels.
