On 30th November 2021, Sophie Barbaix successfully defended her PhD "The water landscape of Turpan: the karez and their context". She obtained the double degree of PhD in Archaeology (UGent) and Doctor of Science: Cartography and Geographic Information System (XIEG-CAS, UCAS). Supervisors were professors Jean Bourgeois (LW02) and Philippe De Maeyer (WE12) from UGent and professors Chen Xi, Alishir Kurban and Liu Tie from XIEG (Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography, Chinese Academy of Sciences).