Usually, people tend to divide their resume in work en leisure sections. In my case, that would be particularly difficult… Part of my leisure became my job, and part of my job became a leisure. Here’s a brief history of my life, and below you’ll find selected details from my CV.
I was born on April 3, 1981. Growing up at the coast, I started kiting on the beach and taking sailing courses together with my brothers when I was 10, about the same age when I realized all I wanted to become was a marine biologist. During my studies, I took a holiday job… at the coast, as a life-guard. I obtained my MSc degree in Biology, graduating on a research project to monitor the current state of seaweeds in the Gulf of Oman, and assess possible influences by the construction of a fertilizer plant. To carry out the field work in the framework of my thesis, I took a SCUBA diving course. Since, I’ve never been on a holiday without my basic diving gear. And as a spin-off, I started playing underwater hockey in the Belgian first division 
During my thesis work, I also discovered the great possibilities of remote sensing, and vowed to explore and test low-cost solutions for mapping seaweeds and explaining and predicting their spread. Being inseparable from the sea, I spent many a holiday near or on the sea during my career. For instance, I rented a sailing yacht to go island-hopping in Croatia and Sweden, while never returning without some interesting samples for our lab. The latest cross-over between my professional and leisure activities arose when I took my one-line kite along on an expedition to Oman and used it to launch my camera to a height of about 150m to map intertidal seaweeds on a fine scale along a hardly accessible rocky coast.
CURRENT POSITION
Teaching Assistant and PhD Student at the Phycology Research Group, Biology Department, Ghent University (Belgium)
CURRENT RESEARCH FOCUS
Remote sensing and niche modeling of benthic marine communities, with a focus on tropical seaweeds.
PH.D. THESIS RUNNING TITLE
Spatial and temporal analysis of seaweed communities in the Arabian Seas
INTERNATIONAL FIELD WORK
- Sultanate of Oman including Musandam and Masirah Island, organization and supervision of sampling trips along the entire coast in collaboration with the Ministry of Environment and Climate Affairs (Oman), involving SCUBA diving, snorkeling, 4×4 driving, desert beach camping and navigation, in the framework of remote sensing studies and ecological field experiments (one month each time, summer 2003, summer 2004, winter and summer 2005 and 2006, summer 2008).
- Tanzania and Zanzibar, organization and assistance in 3 weeks-field trip including SCUBA diving and snorkeling, in the framework of a biogeographic research project (winter 2008).
OUTREACH
- Presentations about ongoing research and demonstrations to the general public, including children, at the “UGent aan Zee” open day (Ghent University, Belgium) and Flanders Science Festival (Mechelen, Belgium)
- Poster presentations to the scientific community at the VLIZ Young Scientists’ Day (Bruges, Belgium, 2005 and 2007), European Space Agency workshop on CHRIS/PROBA satellite imagery (Frascati, Italy, 2006) and the 4th European Phycological Congress (Oviedo, Spain, 2007) about remote sensing
- Invited speaker at the 9th International Phycological Congress (Tokyo, Japan, coming up) about niche modeling of invasive species
- Poster presentations for the general public at different kite festivals and expositions about kite aerial photography for scientific research
LANGUAGES
- Dutch (mother tongue)
- English (very good)
- French (very good)
- Swedish (good)
- German (basic)
- Arabic (basic)
VARIOUS
- Various practical sailing courses on inland waters and sea, including competition trim, spinnaker, coastal navigation and maneuvring (1992-2007)
- Coastal Life-guard, Belgium (1998-2004; commanding officer in 2004 )
- European Standard Driving Licence B for cars and vans with up to 8 passengers and trailers up to 3500kg (2000)
- Coastal Life-guard Service Navigation Instructor (2002-2004)
- Nature guide (2003, courses attended)
- CMAS 1* Diving Licence (2003), currently running for 2* with over 60 logged dives, including staged decompression, night diving and drift diving up to 36m
- 4×4 Desert Dune Driving (2003)
- Superior Life-guard (2005)
- Arabic spoken (2006, courses attended)
- International Certificate for Pleasure Craft (2006)
- VHF maritime communication (2006)
