This academic year too, students at Ghent University can immerse themselves in the world of the port. Port Authority North Sea Port is giving its support to the ‘North Sea Port Chair’ for another five years. Chair holder is professor Dr Theo Notteboom.
“With the Chair, North Sea Port wants to anchor the expertise in the field of port and maritime transport economy even more at UGent. As a sponsor, North Sea Port wants to further commit to the exchange of knowledge and encourage research and development,” said CEO Daan Schalck.
Prof Klaas Willaert, director of the Maritime Institute and attached to the Department of European, Public and International Law of the Faculty of Law and Criminology, adds: “The expertise will be deployed in providing education within the inter-university ‘Master in Maritime Science’, a multidisciplinary programme including legal, economic and technical subjects. In addition, the Chair also offers the opportunity to carry out research and services at UGent’s Maritime Institute.”
The Chair also encourages collaborations with foreign universities and contributes to the international image of UGent on the one hand and of North Sea Port as a top European port on the other. The Chair was established in 2016. In the field of secondary education, the Maritime Institute and the port authority have been partners for almost three decades in organising the ‘Permanent Training in Port Management’.
Professor Notteboom
The Chair holder is Professor Dr Theo Notteboom, who is dedicated to teaching, research and service at UGent’s Maritime Institute. The North Sea Port Chair enables an expansion of Theo Notteboom’s teaching activities within the MSc (Master of Science) Maritime Science.
Thanks to the new Chair, Notteboom now also teaches the subject ‘Port Planning’ within the international, multidisciplinary master-after-master programme, in addition to ‘Maritime and Port Economics’. Moreover, within the Chair, Notteboom focuses on supporting various activities within North Sea Port. Notteboom is also a link in the cooperation between UGent’s Maritime Institute and various foreign maritime universities.
International knowledge platform
Professor Dr Notteboom has very extensive international research experience at, among others, Dalian Maritime University and Shanghai Maritime University (China), the two largest maritime universities in the world. The maritime expert is also professor at the University of Antwerp and Antwerp Maritime Academy, visiting professor at the World Maritime University in Malmö (Sweden) and MPA Visiting Professor in Port Management at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.
In addition, Notteboom is one of the driving forces behind the online international knowledge platform PortEconomics.eu. Notteboom is vice president and former president of the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) and co-author of the World Ports Tracker reports of the international port organisation IAPH. Last year, he and colleagues Thanos Pallis (Greece) and Jean-Paul Rodrigue (US) published the leading handbook ‘Port Economics, Management and Policy‘.
