people

Nele Aernouts is an assistant professor of housing and urbanism at the Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research. She teaches in the MSc in Urban Design…

Prof. Pieter Ballon is the Director of the research group SMIT (Studies on Media, Innovation and Technologies). He was appointed the first Brussels…

Francesc Baró is an (urban) environmental scientist appointed as Asst. Professor at VUB and member of Cosmopolis and BRISPO research groups. He is…

David Bassens is Professor of Economic Geography and Director of Cosmopolis: Centre for Urban Research at VUB, a research group dedicated to urban…

Dr. Tuba Bircan is a professor of sociology at BRISPO at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB); also affiliated as a senior research associate at HIVA…

Kobe Boussauw is Associate Professor of Spatial Planning and Mobility, member of the Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research at the Vrije Universiteit…

Sara Buekens is Assistant Professor in Literature in French at VUB.

Heleen is an assistant professor and senior researcher at the Mobilise research group of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Diana Castilleja is professor of Spanish and Latin American Literature and Culture at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and at the Université Saint-…

Margaret Chen is professor with expertise in the research domains of hydraulic, hydrodynamics, morphodynamics, and sediment dynamics.

Laurence Claeys is professor of Communication Science studies at the VUB. She is also co-founder and product manager of the IOT company Sensolus who…

Eric Corijn is a cultural philosopher and social scientist, emeritus professor of Social and Cultural Geography, vice chair of the Brussels Studies…

Mattias De Backer is research professor at the Department of Criminology at Vrije Universiteit Brussel, co-coordinator of the Horizon Europe project…

Liesbeth De Donder is professor Adult Educational Sciences, and director of the Society and Ageing Research Lab (SARLab).

Margo De Koster is assistant professor in historical criminology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and lecturer…

Tom De Waele is first auditor at the Council of State and guest professor in the MSc in Urban Design and Spatial Planning (STeR*) at the Vrije…

Patrick Deboosere teaches demography at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and is emeritus at the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Sarah Dury started as a tenure track assistant professor in Adult Educational Sciences in October 2020 after being a postdoc research fellow at the…

Els Enhus was full professor in Criminology at the Department of Criminology of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). Since September 2018 she is…

Aurore Fransolet is a guest professor at Cosmopolis, where she teaches the course “Greening the City” as part of the VUB-ULB MSc in Urban Studies.

Sylvie Gadeyne has been appointed a full-time professorship at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Statistics I, Social Science Research Methodology,…

Waldo Galle is assistant professor and the academic policy coordinator on sustainability transitions at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and…

Prof. Dr. Gloria González Fuster is a Research Professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)’s Faculty of Law and Criminology, and Director of…

Serge Gutwirth is an emeritus Professor at the Faculty of Law and Criminology of the VUB, where he studied law, criminology and also obtained a post-…

Janine Hauthal is research professor of intermedial studies (tenure track) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. She studied Applied Theatre Studies in…

Lena Imeraj is the postdoctoral research coordinator of the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies. In addition to her role at the Centre, she holds…

Wojciech Kębłowski is an Assistant Professor based at Hong Kong University, joining VUB's Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research as guest…

Pepijn Kennis sees the city as a place for everyone, created by everyone.

Prof. dr Imre Keserü is an assistant professor and team leader for urban mobility at the Mobilise research group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (…

Dr. René Kreichauf is Professor in Urban Studies and Planning, FWO postdoc fellow, and lecturer in the Erasmus Mundus MSc 4CITIES and the MSc Urban…

Bart Lambert is an Assistant Professor of Late Medieval History and a member of the HOST research group at the VUB.

Cathy Macharis is a full professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in the Faculty of Economics. She has a passion for the transition to a more…

Pieter Martens teaches courses in Architectural History and Architectural Preservation. His research deals with the history of architecture and…

Lucas Melgaço is Professor of Urban Criminology in the Department of Criminology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and coordinator of the Crime…

Koen Mommens is associate professor in the mobilise research group.

Bob Pierik is Assistant Professor of Early Modern Urban History at the Social History of Capitalism research group at the VUB .

Michael Ryckewaert is associate professor at Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research. He teaches urban design studio as well as history and theory of…

Arvi Sepp studied German and English Philology, Sociology, and Literary Theory in Leuven, Louvain-la-Neuve, Berlin and Gießen. He is Professor of…

An-Sofie is an assistant professor and postdoctoral researcher in the Department of (Adult) Educational Sciences at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.…

Eva Swyngedouw is Professor of Sociology at BRISPO. As an urban ethnographer, her work examines how social and institutional processes shape…

Geert te Boveldt is an assistant professort at Mobilise. His research combines transport policy, planning and geography.

Stephanie Van de Voorde holds a Tenure Track position in Architectural and Construction History at the Department of Architectural Engineering of the…

Bas van Heur is professor of urban studies, director of the Brussels Centre for Urban Studies, and programme director of the VUB-ULB MSc in Urban…

Hadewijch Vandenheede holds a BSc in Social Work (2005), BSc in Sociology (2007), MSc in Sociology (2008) and a PhD in Social Sciences (2011). As of…

Geert Vandermeersche is an assistant professor in culture and arts education in the BILD research group

Fabio Vanin is professor of landscape urbanism at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and co-founder and director of LATITUDE Platform for Urban Research…

Christophe Vanroelen is assistant professor of sociology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium.

Boud Verbeiren has a background in GIS and Remote Sensing. His core research interests and activities are the monitoring, mapping and modelling of…

Pieter-Paul Verhaeghe is professor in Sociology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Anne Winter is Professor of History and Director of the research team Historical Research into Urban Transformation Processes (HOST) at the VUB.

Ine Wouters is professor and head of the department of Architectural Engineering at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and involved in the ULB/VUB…

Dr Barbora Wouters is an Assistant Professor of Geoarchaeology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. As a Research Professor (BOF Tenure Track), she…

Maxime Zaït is a guest professor at LSTS.

Ahmad Wali Ahmad Yar is a postdoctoral researcher at BRISPO at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Line is an urban anthropologist and human geographer specialized in land tenure, participatory urban planning, and affordable housing. She is a…

Dr Samyajit Basu is a senior researcher in urban mobility group at the MOBI Mobility, Logistics and Automotive Technology Research Centre at the…

Marion Berzin is project manager at Brussels Academy and a social geographer within the research centre Passages at the CNRS France in Bordeaux and…

Dieter Bruggeman is a postdoctoral researcher at the Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research. His research explores the (re)organization of collective…

Nicolas is a Ph.D. researcher in Sustainable Logistics at the Mobilise Research Centre (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), supervised by Prof. Dr. Cathy…

Freke Caset is part-time postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Mobility and Spatial Planning (Ghent University) and Cosmopolis Centre for…

Dorota is a research coordinator in BRISPO research group (Brussels Institute for Social and Population Studies).

Karl-Filip Coenegrachts is Master of Laws, specialized in European and International Law. Karl-Filip is head of the data, governance and communities…

Nicola has a mixed position as researcher at the Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research of the VUB, and at Brussels regional administration for the…

Valerie De Craene (she/her) is a geographer at Cosmopolis.

Tatiana Debroux is postdoc researcher and lecturer in the MSc Urban Studies and Erasmus Mundus MSc 4Cities, where she teaches Urban Analysis,…

Matthijs Degraeve has a PhD in History and a master’s degree in the Conservation of Monuments and Sites.

Laura Deruytter is interested in how financial markets influence our daily life. Her PhD research examined the financial logics shaping municipally-…

Hanne Dewinter is a FWO-funded postdoctoral researcher in the BILD research group who studies participatory arts practices in connection to urban…

Bas Dikmans focuses on older adults' civic engagement in urban contexts, with a particular interest in life course and environmental approaches.

Dr. Janna Everaert is a historian who is affiliated with the HOST research group at the VUB, the History department of the University of Ghent and…

Abel Ghekiere is a postdoctoral researcher at BRISPO, Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

He Huang is a researcher in the mobilise research group.

Marlen Komorowski (PhD) is senior researcher and guest professor at VUB and workd for the research group SMIT (Studies on Media, Innovation and…

Philippe Lebeau is a member of the Mobilise research group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Verena Lenna is a post-doctoral researcher at Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research interested in how rights shape the city and its governance as an…

Ulysses Pascal is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Finance and Big Tech at Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and holds a PhD in Information Studies…

Nahad is a subject matter expert in Water Resource Engineering, with experience in the research and development of stormwater runoff solutions to…

Marjolein Schepers is a postdoctoral research fellow in History of the Research Foundation Flanders (FWO) and assistent professor in Urban History at…

Annelien Smets is senior researcher at SMIT (Studies in Media, Innovation and Technology) and visiting professor at the Department of Communication…

Eva Van Eenoo is a postdoc-researcher at Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research, with a background in history and urban planning.

Elke Vanempten is a project coordinator and scientific collaborator of the Institute for agriculture and fishery research (ILVO), where she conducts…

Dr. Lior Volinz is a post-doctoral researcher at the Crime and Society (CRiS) research group, and a guest professor at the Department of Criminology…

Aikaterini Anastasiou is a PhD researcher at the International Centre of Urbanism, Department of Architecture, KU Leuven and the Cosmopolis Centre…

Jasmin Baumgartner is a PhD researcher in Sciences at the Department of Geography at VUB. Since November 2022 she is working within the IRP-funded…

Paulien Beeckman is a PhD researcher at VUB Architetcural Engineering. In 2023, she completed a one year research project on sustainable innovation…

Koen Borghys is a PhD researcher at Studies in Media, Innovation and Technology (SMIT), Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Simon Bothof is a joint PhD researcher between Mobilise and Cosmopolis on sustainability and justice in the appraisal of transport projects

By adopting a feminist perspective, Alessandra Calvi critically evaluates risk and impact assessments as means to enhance fairness of AI solutions…

Kathleen Cauwelier is PhD researcher at the Mobilise research group under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Koen Mommens.

Lisa Cochez is a PhD researcher in spatial planning, housing and mobility at the Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research. She obtained her Master’s…

Judith Cools is a PhD Researcher at the VUB at the department of Architectural Engineering. Through researching the cultural value of building…

Karoline da Silva Rodrigues is a Ph.D. candidate at HOST, Historical Research into Urban Transformation Processes, at the VUB.

Line Dalile is a PhD candidate in the BILD research group who studies the connection between artistic practices and urban neighbourhoods.

Thomas Dawance is an architect and a sociologist who joined Cosmopolis and Brussels Ageing Studies (Educational Science) in 2019. His joint PhD (…

Liesbet De Backer is a PhD researcher with a multidisciplinary background in Orthopedagogics, Science of Arts and Archaeology. Before joining…

Céline Drieskens is a PhD researcher in the field of critical urban geography. Her research is part of a joint research project between Cosmopolis…

Ana Laura Escalona Diaz is a PhD candidate in the BILD research group who studies the role of embodied literacy in artistic and educational projects…

Janin Fauth is a PhD researcher in stakeholder engagement.

Elsa Gallez is a PhD researcher in Interdisciplinary Studies (Urban Studies) and member of three research groups : Cartography and GIS, BRISPO, and…

Aidan Geel is a PhD candidate within the Decarbonization and Justice Chair of the SWIFFT collective, jointly hosted by VUB and ULB. His research…

Merlin Gillard is a PhD candidate in geography at LISER and VUB since 2021. His research interests pertain to the political economy of mobility…

Marjolein Hantson holds a master degree in History (Ghent University, 2005), and a master degree in Urban Planning (Ghent University, 2006).

Imane Huyghebaert is a PhD researcher in Sciences at the Department of Geography at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB). She works within the…

Emilie Jacquart is a PhD Researcher within the Finance and Decarbonization Chair of the SWIFFT Collective, jointly hosted by VUB and ULB.

Gabrielle Kawa is a PhD researcher at the VUB Architectural Engineering. She obtained her master's of science degree in architectural…

Adriano La Gioia is a PhD Researcher in international political economy within the Finance and Decarbonization chair of the SWIFFT collective,…

Ward Leloup is a teaching assistant in History (VUB) and a junior researcher at the research group HOST (Historical Research into Urban…

Floris Liekens is a PhD candidate at Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Urban Criminology and teaching assistant for the modules Crime and the City 1…

Lotte Luykx is a PhD researcher at Mobilise working on children's participation.

She is a PhD researcher at Vrije Universiteit Brussel and she is working on a project funded by the FWO focuses on applying operations research…

Soumaya Majdoub is a PhD Researcher with a multidisciplinary background.

Joséphine Mariquivoi is a PhD researcher, graduated in Geography and Urban Planning. She is working on a join R&D project research with bpost, to…

Mario Matthys is an architect and spatial planner (Sint-Lucas Gent) with 35 years of experience in his capacity as an urban designer and (urban)…

Jeanne is currently a Phd Student at Cosmopolis. Her project is called “SoHoLab: the regeneration of large-scale social housing estate through…

Marylise Parein is a PhD researcher at VUB Architectural Engineering. She has a keen interest in residential heritage and building culture of the (…

Yuxin Pu is a junior researcher in urban greening and urban planning, currently PhD student working with the research groups Cartography and GIS,…

Joren Sansen has a Master’s degree in Geography (Ghent University) and Spatial Planning (Vrije Universiteit Brussel).

Claire Schelfhout is a PhD researcher of the sustainable logistics team of VUB Mobilise. Her PhD-research is focused on emission free urban…

Laura Shllaku is a junior researcher at the Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research. In August 2024, Laura started a joint PhD at Ghent University (AMRP…

Yannis joined the Center for Historical Research into Urban Transformation Processes (HOST) in 2020 to work on a PhD project supervised by prof. dr.…

Robin Rose Southard is a doctoral student studying at the VUB. She is affiliated with the Historical Research into Urban Transformation Processes (…

Karen Steukers (°2000) is a PhD researcher. In 2023, she obtained a Master of Science in Architectural Engineering at Ghent University. In 2024, she…

Luise Stoisser is an interdisciplinary, mixed methods PhD researcher with a strong interest in just urban ageing, housing, identity, and place.

Ward Van Hemeledonck is a PhD researcher in spatial planning and mobility. He holds a master degree (MSc) in architectural engineering (KU Leuven,…

Liese Van Holen is a PhD Researcher at the VUB at the department of Architectural Engineering.

Charlotte is a PhD researcher in Medieval History and (Bio-)Archaeology and is affiliated with the SHOC (Social History of Capitalism) and AMGC (…

Charlotte van Vessem is a doctoral researcher of the urban mobility team of VUB Mobilise. Her PhD-research is focused on inclusive and sustainable…

Ruben Van Vooren is a PhD researcher at VUB in the field of circular construction.

Jozef Vandermeulen is a PhD researcher in urban geography at the Cosmopolis Centre for Urban Research. He obtained his Master’s degree in Conflict…

Jakob Vandevoorde is a PhD researcher at Cosmopolis and an urban and spatial planner at Endeavour, a cooperative for user-centered research and co-…

Paul Blondeel is a volunteer researcher at Cosmopolis VUB where he taught urban and spatial planners for many years (the STeR* training). His…

Jens Brandt is a PhD researcher at the School of Architecture, Tampere University, member of the research unit Cosmopolis.

Koos Fransen is a voluntary researcher at Cosmopolis VUB. He has a background in Industrial Engineering – Land Surveying, Urbanism and Spatial…

Nick lectures in various educational programs at VUB.

Els Silvrants-Barclay is senior researcher at the Chair of Affective Architectures in the Department of Architecture at ETH Zürich, where she co-…

Thomas Moens teaches in the MSc in Urban Design and Spatial Planning (STeR*) at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and in the BA Landscape Architecture…

Aïcha is Management Assistant for the MSc in Urban Desgin and Spatial Planning (STeR*) and for the Geography Department at the Vrije Universiteit…

Stefan De Corte is administrative coordinator of the VUB-ULB MSc in Urban Studies and the Erasmus Mundus MSc 4Cities.

Elena Solonina holds an MA degree in Linguistics and Communication Sciences. She is the first point of contact for students of the International…

Meet our student representatives from cohort 8 (2024-26)!

Sara Tori holds a PhD in applied economics from the Mobilise Research Group of the VUB, with her research focusing on the use of participatory…

Jessica van de Ven is coordinator of the urban citizens university “Brussels Academy”, in which researchers and urban experts share their knowledge…