candidate rector

Herwig Leirs

 

My career started as a biology student at the University of Antwerp in 1981. Even then, I was committed as a praeses and student representative. I stayed at the university to do a PhD, on the ecology of rodents in Tanzania. From 1996-2001, we lived in Denmark where I was department head in a small research institute. Then I came back to UAntwerp, as prof for zoology and ecology in the Biology, Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences programmes.

My research further concentrated on small mammal ecology, and especially in conditions where rodents damage agriculture or are carriers of infectious diseases, often with fieldwork, especially in Africa. In recent years in my research team, we have mainly been studying the relationship between biodiversity, ecological conditions and the outbreak of new infectious diseases. Among others, we have several projects on Ebola, mpox and other pathogens in DR Congo, Tanzania and Ethiopia. Almost all our research is done in international collaborations. Our research group consists of 5 professors and about 60 staff members.

My interest in policy also continued. After returning to Antwerp, I was successively chairman of the Biology Education Committee, dean of the Faculty of Science and, for the past seven years, chairman of the Board of Governors. Meanwhile, I was also a member of several other committees and working groups across faculties, getting to know the whole university thoroughly. I was a member of the Bureau of VLIR-UOS, and gained further policy experience as a member and currently president of the Board of Directors of the Royal Society for Zoology of Antwerp (including Antwerp Zoo and Planckendael, Queen Elisabeth Hall), member of the Board of Directors of the Institute of Tropical Medicine and president of the non-profit organisation APOPO (known for the rats that detect landmines). I am also a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of some foreign research institutes.

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