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Adugnaw Birhanu Zegeye successfully defended his PhD

(11-03-2024) On Thursday, 29 February 2024, Adugnaw Birhanu Zegeye successfully defended his PhD: "Hydrological study of Mount Guna , a shield volcano on the Ethiopian Plateau".

Supervisors: Prof Kristine Walraevens (UGent), Prof . Dr Jan Nyssen (UGent).

Members of the examination committee: Chairman: Prof Dr Haosheng Huang (UGent), Prof Dr Margaret Chen (VUB), Prof Dr Stefaan Dondeyne (VUB), Prof Dr Amaury Frankl (UGent), Prof Dr Thomas Hermans (UGent), Dr Alemau Yenehun Beyene (UGent).

Cycling professor Meredith Glaser on Radio1

(02-02-2024) "Belgium has a cycling professor for the first time: Meredith Glaser. Today is her first working day at Ghent University. She tells you all about her unique job and why she is so passionate about cycling."

Interview on VRT Radio 1 with Dr. Meredith Glaser, expert in sustainable mobility and since 1 February 2024 chair holder of the new Bicycle chair at UGent (Department of Geography).

Listen to the interview on the website of Radio1 (in Dutch).


Photo credits: (c) DMOW

A cycling professor for Flanders: Dr. Meredith Glaser

(31-01-2024) Dr. Meredith Glaser, an expert in sustainable mobility, will start at UGent on Feb. 1, 2024 as chair holder of the new Bicycle Chair. The chair should strengthen the ambitious Flemish cycling policy with academic knowledge and insights.

The importance of the bicycle as a means of transport has been rising sharply in recent years. Cycling has never been more popular in Flanders, nor has investment in cycling infrastructure. In order to further support this positive evolution with scientific research, a new chair is being established at UGent, with financial and substantive support from the Flemish government. The academic work that the chair will produce will contribute to mobility policy and the social debate on bicycle mobility in Flanders. Dr. Meredith Glaser, who was chosen as chair holder, will take up a role in various training units at UGent and work closely with the many actors involved in Flemish cycling policy.

Read the full press release (in Dutch).

Yuting Jang successfully defended her PhD

(22-01-2024) On Monday 15 January 2024, Yuting Jang successfully defended her PhD: " Navigating Polycentric Urban Regions: Economic Consequences and Methodological Insights".

Supervisors: Prof. dr. Ben Derudder (KU Leuven and UGent), Dr. Freke Caset (UGent and VUB).

Members of the examination committee: Chairman: Prof. dr. Nico Van de Weghe (UGent), Prof. dr. Haosheng Huang (UGent), Pro. dr. Yingcheng Li (Southeast University), Dr. Evert Meijers (Utrecht University), Dr. Angelika Münter (Institute for Regional and Urban Development, Dortmund), Prof. dr. Frank Witlox (UGent)

Congratulations Yuting Jang!

Chenchen Xu successfully defended her PhD

(04-01-2024) On Wednesday 13 December 2023, Chenchen Xu successfully defended her PhD: "Passenger Behavior in Airplane Emergency Evacuations: From Time Perception to Exit Choice".

Promoters: Prof. Dr. Frank Witlox (UGent), Prof. Dr. Quan Shao (Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics). Members of the examination committee: Chairman: Prof. Dr. Haosheng Huang (UGent). Prof. Dr. Kurt Fuellhart (UGent & Unison Consulting, Inc.), Prof. Dr. Giovanni Circella (UGent), Prof. Dr. Ben Derudder (KU Leuven), Prof. Dr. Genserik L.L. Reniers (Delft University of Technology).

Congratulations Chenchen!

Audience Award "Most compelling poster presentation" for Corneel Casier

(18-12-2023) Early December, several researchers and doctoral students from the Department of Geography participated in the I-Know Innovation Day 2023 at Ghent University. Corneel Casier's poster ("Understanding street closures: How different modes of travel are affected – an agent-based modelling approach") won the Audience Award for the 'Most compelling poster presentation.'

Congratulations, Corneel!

Yuting Chen successfully defended her PhD

(18-12-2023) On Friday 11 December 2023, Yuting Chen successfully defended her PhD: "Examining Airport Categorisation and the Evolving Dynamics of Airports. A multimodal transport approach in the context of China". Supervisors: Prof Frank Witlox (UGent), Prof Kurt Fuellhart (Unison Consulting). Members of the examination committee: Chairman: Prof Dr Veerle Van Eetvelde (Ugent). Prof. Dr Liang Dai (Nanjing University of Finance and Economics), Prof. Dr Tony H. Grubesic (University of California at Riverside), Prof. Dr Theo Notteboom (UGent), Prof. Dr Kevin B. O'Connor (University of Melbourne).

Congratulations Yuting!

Tanhua Jin successfully defended her PhD

(07-12-2023) On Monday 4 December 2023 , Tanhua Jin successfully defended her PhD: “Transition to Shared Mobility: Usage Patterns, Challenges, and the Built Environment Effects”. Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Frank Witlox (UGent), Prof. dr. Haosheng Huang (UGent). Members of the examination committee: Prof. dr. Nico Van de Weghe (UGent), Prof. dr. Giovanni Circella (UGent), Prof. dr. ing. Karst Geurs (University of Twente, Netherlands), Dr. Hannah Hook UGent), Prof. dr. Cecília Silva (University of Porto, Portugal).

Congratulations Tanhua Jin!

Yiyang Luo successfully defended his PhD

(07-12-2023) Tuesday, 5 December2023, Yiyang Luo successfully defended his PhD: “DISTURBANCES IN THE IONOSPHERE: THE ‘EARLY BIRD’ OF HIGH-ENERGY NATURAL HAZARD EVENTS”. Scientific research on multi-instruments detection of the ionosphere under different types of high-energy natural hazard events

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Leonid Chernogor (UKharkiv); Prof. Dr. Sergey Shulga (UKharkiv); Prof. Dr. Kwinten Van Weverberg (UGent); Prof. Dr. Frank Witlox (UGent); Prof. Dr. Isabel Van Driessche (UGent). Examination Committee: Prof. Haosheng Huang (Chair, WE12 UGent); Dr. Tobias G.W. Verhulst (Royal Meteorological institute of Belgium); Prof. Piet Termonia (UGent); Prof. Alain De Wulf (UGent); Prof. dr. Giovanni Lapenta (KU Leuven) em. Prof. Philippe De Maeyer (UGent); Dr. Edmund Henley (Met Office of UK).

Congratulations Yiyang!

Wanted: academic expert for more and safer cycling in Flanders

(06-11-2023) At the University of Ghent, Department of Geography, a new Chair Bicycle is installed by the Flemish Government. The chair Bicycle has the thematic goal to support, evaluate and further develop the Flemish policy on cycling. The chair Bicycle provides for the appointment of a part-time (10%) guest professor (grade professor) and a 50% scientific collaborator, to support the chair holder. The Bicycle Chair commences on December 1, 2023 and is for 3 years (extension is possible but depends on required funding). To fill the chair, the department is looking for a chair holder (m/f/x).

Detailed information: https://www.ugent.be/nl/jobs/gastprofessor-leerstoel-fiets.pdf (English version starting at page 5)

Rui Shao successfully defended her PhD

(05-11-2023) Monday 30 October 2023, Rui Shao successfully defended her PhD: "Space-time Flexibility of Shopping Activities: On the Role of ICT and the Built Environment".

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Ben Derudder (UGent, KU Leuven) Members of the examination committee: Prof. Dr. Alain De Wulf (Chair) (UGent), Prof. Dr. Frank Witlox (UGent), Dr. Long Cheng (UGent), Prof. Dr. Mengqiu Cao (University of Westminster, U.K.), Prof. Dr. Yongchun Yang (Lanzhou University, China)

Congratulations Rui!

Leen De Paepe successfully defended her PhD

(04-10-2023) On Friday, Sept. 22, 2023, Leen De Paepe successfully defended her PhD "Towards a Behavioural Understanding of the Social Acceptance of Shared Transport Services." Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Frank Witlox (UGent), Prof. Dr. Veronique Van Acker (Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research). Members of the examination committee: Prof. dr. Nico Van de Weghe (UGent) , Prof. dr. Jonathan Beaverstock (University of Bristol), Prof. dr. Giovanni Circella (UGent), Prof. dr. Caroline Mullen (University of Leeds) , Prof. dr. Yusak Susilo (University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna)

Congratulations to Leen!

Haosheng Huang elected as vice-president ICA

(23-08-2023) At the 19th General Assembly of the International Cartographic Association (ICA), Haosheng Huang was elected as one of the vice-presidents of the ICA for the period 2023-2027. The mission of the ICA is to promote the disciplines and professions of cartography and GIScience in an international context. Learn more about the ICA and its activities at https://icaci.org

Yue Hu received an honorable mentioning for the BIVEC best paper prize 2023

(16-08-2023) In June, several researchers and PhD students from Social and Economic Geography participated in the BIVEC-GIBET conference in Leuven. Yue Hu's paper ("Revealing multiplex topological features of China's domestic air transport network: intralayer and interlayer characteristics") was among the top three papers of the conference. Congratulations Yue!

Co-authored by Kurt Fuellhart, Shengrun Zhang, and Frank Witlox

Songyao Huai successfully defended her PhD

(03-08-2023) On Wednesday 5 July 2023, Songyao Huai, successfully defended her PhD “The application and validation of social media data in landscape planning and urban planning”

SUPERVISORS: Prof. dr. Tim Van de Voorde, Prof. dr. Haosheng Huang EXAMINATION COMMITTEE: Prof. dr. Alain De Wulf (UGent), Prof. dr. Nico Van de Weghe (UGent) , Prof. dr. Veerle Van Eetvelde (UGent) , Prof. dr. Frank Canters (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) Prof. dr. Ross Purves (University of Zurich).

Congratulations Songyao Huai!

Department Researchers win Journal of LBS Best Paper Award 2022

(03-08-2023) We are delighted to announce that Sien Benoit from the CartoGIS research group and Frank Witlox and Tom Storme from the Social and Economic Geography research group in collaboration with Delfien Van Dyck, Greet Cardon, Jasper Schipperijn, Steven Verstockt, and Dirk Lauwers, have been awarded the Best Paper Award 2022 by the Journal of Location Based Services.

The award recognizes their paper titled "Environmental factors associated with perceived cycling safety along adolescents’ home-to-school routes" published in Volume 16, Issue 3. This recognition underscores the significant contributions our department's researchers continue to make in their respective fields.

Fengqi Cui successfully defended her PhD

(01-08-2023) On Wednesday June 28 2023 Fengqi Cui successfully defended her PhD "Modeling land-atmosphere interactions and urban climate in Eastern China."

Supervisors: Prof. Piet Termonia, Prof. Philippe De Maeyer, Dr. Rafiq Hamdi.

Members of the examination committee: Prof. Nico Van de Weghe (UGent), Prof. Van Doan Quang (University of Tsukuba, Japan), Prof.Wenhui Kuang (Chinese Academy of Sciences, China), Prof. Natalie Theeuwes (KNMI, Dutch), Prof. Steven Caluwaerts (UGent), Prof. Bert Van Schaeybroeck (UGent)

Congratulations Fengqi Cui!

Long Zhang successfully defended his PhD

(25-05-2023) On Monday, 22 May 2023, Long Zhang successfully defended his PhD "Attribute trajectory analysis: analyzing the dynamics of non-spatial data as trajectories".

Supervisors: Prof. dr. Nico Van de Weghe (UGent), Prof. dr. Philippe De Maeyer (UGent).

Members of the examination committee: Prof. dr. Veerle Van Eetvelde (Chair) (UGent), Prof. dr. Robert Weibel (University of Zurich), Prof. dr. Frieke Van Coillie (UGent), Prof. dr. Steven Caluwaerts (UGent), Prof. dr. Haosheng Huang (UGent), Prof. dr. Tim Van de Voorde (UGent), Dr. Laure De Cock (UGent).

Congratulations Long Zhang!

Membership of the Academia Europaea (MAE) conferred to Frank Witlox

(17-05-2023) In May 2023 a Membership of the Academia Europaea (MAE) was conferred to professor Frank Witlox. Membership is competitive, by invitation only and judged during a peer review selection process based on demonstrated "sustained academic excellence".

The object of Academia Europaea is the advancement and propagation of excellence in scholarship in the humanities, law, the economic, social, and political sciences, mathematics, medicine, and all branches of natural and technological sciences anywhere in the world for the public benefit and for the advancement of the education of the public of all ages. The aim of the Academy is to promote European research, advise governments and international organisations in scientific matters, and further interdisciplinary and international research.

Maite Dewinter succesfully defended her PhD

(11-05-2023) Wednesday, May 3, 2023 Maite Dewinter successfully defended her doctorate "Optimising daily police patrol: Towards better matching police supply and demand by directing police in space and time."

Supervisors: Prof. Dr. Frank Witlox (Ugent), Prof. Dr. Christophe Vandeviver (UGent) and Prof. Dr. Tom Vander Beken (Ugent). Committee members: Chairman:Prof. Dr. Veerle Van Eetvelde (UGent), Prof. Dr. Haosheng Huang (UGent), Prof. Dr. Eva Lievens (UGent), Prof. Dr. Wim Hardyns (UGent), Prof. Dr. Wout Dullaert (VU Amsterdam).

Congratulations Maite!

Two vacancies for a full-time assistant in the department

(25-04-2023) The UGent Department of Human Resources published two vacancies for a full-time assistant in the Department of Geography, Ghent University (ID:25891, ID:25892). The vacancies are in the research areas of Social and Economic Geography on the one hand and Physical Geography on the other. The deadline for application is May 23.

https://jobs.ugent.be/go/Assistant-academic-staff/8808502/

moVe moRe

(29-03-2023) We have some exciting news! Soon you can walk, cycle and drive in VR at our group because the faculty approved the moVe moRe project. This new research infrastructure will boost research in mobility, navigation, sport sciences, safety and much more! Stay tuned...