Good-looking people enough at the VUB. But do you still recognize them? As part of our 50th anniversary, we knocked on the door of some VUB professors and asked them to take a look at their old photo archive and give us a photo from their student days. And admit it... often with hilariously surprising results.
Who are we looking for?
He was born in Ghent on 28 March 1953 and has a master's degree in mathematics and a doctorate in philosophy. He obtained this diploma at the University of Ghent, after which he opted for a career as a professor at the VUB. Between 2005 and 2009 he was also dean of the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy at the Free University of Brussels. And although he is still often found on campus, he has been professor emeritus at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel since last academic year. You probably know him best because of his lessons in logic and philosophy of science, his long beard and his performances in numerous television programmes.
Indeed, the young man in this picture is the one and only professor Jean-Paul Van Bendegem.
Read more below the images and discover the VUB-anecdote of professor De Knop.
"As is appropriate for secularists, their vocabulary doesn't know the word 'impossible'. I've never confirmed this more beautifully given all the times I've been told that, according to regulations X, Y, or Z, something was not really possible, immediately followed by the question 'So, how are we going to solve that?'. That is and remains the VUB for me. Contrary and creative."
Do you aslo recognize these professors?