For Pieter Verbeke, a student at Ghent University, 2020 was mainly focused on work placements. He is currently doing the educational masters in physics and astronomy, and is already teaching part-time in secondary education.
Nicolaas Lumen is a ‘product of Ghent University’ in every way. In 2002, he graduated in medicine, and these days he is a professor in urology. Nicolaas hopes to quickly return to a normal life in 2021, so that we can come and go as we please once more.
Ragad Haj Ali is doing her first bachelor in pharmaceutical sciences, but has already been through a lot in her life. Meanwhile, she is proud to have the opportunity to study at Ghent University. She remains positive, despite the many challenges.
Pascal Vandaele is a functional analyst in the Gismo Team at DICT (department of Information and Communication Technology). He tells us what 2020 meant to him, what he will carry over to next year and above all: what he hopes for in 2021.
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.
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.
