Members

Dr. Philippe Claeys is a planetary scientist, geologist and geochemist working on the consequences of asteroid and comet impacts on the evolution of the bio-geosphere, such as mass extinction of organisms, or large scale global climatic changes. In 1993, he obtained a PhD from the University of California at Davis and for a few years carried out postdoctoral research at the University of California at Berkeley. Before joining the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in 2001 as a professor, he held a position of senior scientist at the Museum of Natural History in Berlin. He currently heads the research unit Earth System Sciences and teaches geology at the VUB; he is also a visiting professor at the Ghent University, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven and University of Liège. He is currently president of Geologica Belgica, the Belgian Geological Society and the author of numerous scientific publications including several in Nature and Science. When he is not traveling the world looking for clues to better understand the 4.5 billion years of evolution of planet Earth, he enjoys working in the lab with PhD students and colleagues on project ranging from astrobiology to geoarcheology.

Webpage: Dr Ph. Claeys Webpage

Kevin De Bondt has a masters degree in Geology from the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB, 2005) and a specialization in Natural Hasard management from the Université de Liège. He is currently a PhD student at the VUB working on flood mitigation in urban environments, river restoration and rainwater infiltration. Since March 2008, many projects have been already developed in these domains on the Brussels Region. He is now carrying out research on the urban water fluxes with a new project “Forgotten connection between urban water fluxes: coupled geological, historical and isotopic approaches towards a sustainable development of Brussels”.

Webpage: Kevin De Bondt Webpage

Aurélie Sorel graduated from the ULB in 2005 with a Masters degree in Geology and in 2011 started a PhD at the VUB focused on the uses of stable isotopes in urban hydrogeology. This study falls within the framework of the European project Scaldwin. She has worked at the University of Namur on several projects, including the hydrogeological mapping of the Walloon Region, the pesticide contamination of public wells and the impacts of water pumping in quarries (Click Here).

Webpage: Aurélie Sorel Webpage