Programme and courses

Patrick De Baets is professor of Machine Elements and Tribology at Ghent University and is heading Soete Laboratory (Ghent University), specialized in mechanical design, fracture mechanics and tribology. His research focuses on the friction and wear of advanced materials (polymers, ceramics and composites) in highly demanding mechanical applications. Since more than 20 years he is teaching specialized courses on Machine Design, Machine Elements and Tribology to Mechanical Engineering students. Besides that he has gained 15 years of experience in teaching general courses on Mechanical Engineering to non-technical audiences, such as e.g. business engineering students.

Christian Koninckx holds a master degree in History (ULB/VUB, 1968-1970) and successfully defended his PhD in History in 1975. He worked in several positions at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and became full-time professor in 2000. He was secretary-general of the International Commission of Maritime History (1985-1990) and chairman of the Royal Marine Society of Belgium (1993-2002). After a very busy career, professor Koninckx retired in 2013, but he is still very actively involved in the academic world. His main topic of research concerns maritime history.

Jan Lagasse obtained his Masters degree in Law at the Ghent University and later completed his studies at Harvard University (US) and the International Institute for Management Development (CH).

He started his professional carreer as a professor's assistant at the Law Faculty of the Ghent University and in 1987 continued his career in several multinational companies. He worked for The Dow Chemical Company, Koninklijke Hoogovens (now Tata Steel) and Fokker (now GKN) in different functions (General counsel, M&A Manager, Post Merger Integration Officer, CEO) in different countries (The Netherlands, Belgium, Germany, UK & USA).

Since 1999 he always assumed the position of Managing Director/CEO and in 2014 he became CEO of Zeeland Seaports, a major Dutch port. He accomplished the merger of the Dutch Zeeland Seaports with the Belgian Port of Ghent in 2018 to create North Sea Port and was co-CEO of the merger port until late 2020. He is now a board member of several companies and associations, an independent consultant to ports in Europe and was appointed by King Willem-Alexander of The Netherlands as Honorary Counsel-General of the Netherlands.

Prof. Jan Lagasse is co-lecturer in the MSc in Maritime Science programme, where he teaches the course Contemporary Port Problems with prof. Daan Schalck.

Evert Lataire graduated in 2004 at Delft University of Technology (Master of Science, Maritime Technology, Ship Hydrodynamics) and obtained his PhD at Ghent University in 2014. He is professor and head of the Maritime Technology Division (Ghent University) and lectures at the Antwerp Maritime Academy. His research focuses mainly on the manoeuvring behaviour of ships in shallow and confined water and is often based upon model tests carried out in the confined water towing tank of Flanders Hydraulics Research (Antwerp, Belgium). He participated since the founding in the new shallow water towing tank, currently under construction in Ostend, Belgium and is co-organiser of all editions of the International Conference on Ship Behaviour in Shallow and Confined Water.

After his studies at Ghent University, Daan Schalck started his professional career in 1988 in the field of drinking water. Between 1995 and 1999, he was advisor on economics and port related issues to the civic officer in Ghent and from 1999 to 2004, he was member of the Belgian federal parliament, where he specialized in government-owned companies and mobility. In 2004, Daan Schalck moved to the private sector and started working for Ernst & Young. However, the maritime world remained a great interest: in 2007 he became general director of a company in the port of Antwerp and in 2009 he returned to his roots, taking up the function of CEO of the port of Ghent. From January 2018 onwards, following a merger with Zealand Seaports, the name of Port of Ghent was transformed into “North Sea Port”. Daan was CEO of North Sea Port until December 2024. 

Peter Troch is professor of coastal engineering and department chair at the Department of Civil Engineering, Ghent University. He is coordinating the design and construction of the new Coastal & Ocean Basin wave tank at Ostend Science Park. He holds a Master (1991) and PhD degree in Civil Engineering from Ghent University. His research is focusing on coastal structures, on ocean wave energy and on eco‐hydraulics. He is co-author of the international EurOtop overtopping manual and associated editor of various journals. He is teaching since more than 20 years specialized courses on coastal structures and integrated water management.