About Me
A few years after the establishment of the National Park Hoge Kempen, I took the challenge to establish and lead the Field Research Centre of Hasselt University. It has become a long-term data monitoring location, where UHasselt assesses innovative socio-ecological activities and biotic diversity. It not only generates unique data for the European-wide standardised data collective, needed for understanding biodiversity loss and changes but also focuses on studying species-species and species-environment interactions.
As such, the FRC has been able to support nature managers and policy-makers at large to contribute towards integrated conservation management plans for more than 10 years now.
This research and many collaborations have resulted in the supervision of bachelor theses (>50), master (>8) and PhD projects (12) and successful infrastructure applications, such as Ecotron Hasselt University (part of ESFRI-AnaEE) Cameratraps from ESFRI-LifeWatch.
During my professional activities collaboration has always been a main driver. Not only locally and regionally but also internationally including the global South. In my early career I managed the Kenya-Belgium projects in Marine Sciences in Mombasa for 2,5 years (based in Mombasa from 1996-1999; new initiatives VLIR-UOS). Besides developing and organising a master marine training course along the coast of Kenya, I managed the visits of the local and visiting researchers, arranged logistics and infrastructure. From 2000-2006, I coordinated the international Master in Ecological Marine Management (VLIR-UOS ICP; VUB-UA, Belgium). In between I was a scientific collaborator at Flanders Marine Institute (VLIZ). Since my appointment at Hasselt University I have continued these international endeavours. I was the co-team lead of one of the projects of the VLIR-UOS IUC with universidad de Oriente, Cuba (from 2012-2024). In 2024, I also organized a workshop for the ITP CiPhil project in the Philippines and performed a mission to Lubumbashi (CDR) as an expert for another VLIRUOS IUC and King Boudewijn Foundation. Recently, I became the co-coordinator of a new long-term VLIRUOS IUC with Universidad Technical del Norte in Imbabura (Ecuador). I undermine this sincere commitment not only by coordinating and optimising the curricula but also by actively supervising several PhD students from the Global South.