North Sea Port extends Chair at Ghent University for 5 years
"With the Chair, North Sea Port wants to give port and maritime transport economy-related expertise an even more firmly established place within Ghent University. As a sponsor, North Sea Port wants to promote the exchange of knowledge and encourage research and development," says CEO Daan Schalck.
Professor Klaas Willaert, director of the Maritime Institute and a member of the Department of European, Public and International Law of the Faculty of Law and Criminology: "This expertise will be used in the delivery of education within the interuniversity 'Master in Maritime Science', a multidisciplinary programme including legal, economic and technical subjects. In addition, the Chair also provides the opportunity to conduct research and provide services at Ghent University's Maritime Institute."
The Chair also promotes partnerships with foreign universities and contributes to the international image of Ghent University and North Sea Port as a top European port.
The Chair was established in 2016. The Maritime Institute and the port authority have been partners in the field of further education for almost three decades, working together to deliver the 'Permanent Training in Port Management' programme.
Professor Theo Notteboom
The Chair holder is Professor Theo Notteboom, who is focused on teaching, research and services at Ghent University's Maritime Institute.
The North Sea Port Chair enables Professor Theo Notteboom to his extend his teaching activities within the MSc Maritime Science. Alongside 'Maritime and Port Economics', thanks to the new Chair, Professor Notteboom is now also teaching the subject of 'Port Planning' as part of this international, multidisciplinary post-Master's programme. In addition, in his role as Chair holder, Professor Notteboom is supporting various activities within North Sea Port, such as the North Sea Port Conference that will be held in Ghent on 23 November. Professor Notteboom also provides a link between Ghent University's Maritime Institute and several foreign maritime universities.
Professor Notteboom has extensive international research experience, including stints at Dalian Maritime University and Shanghai Maritime University (China), the two biggest maritime universities in the world. This maritime expert is also a 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. He is one of the driving forces behind the online international knowledge platform PortEconomics.eu. Notteboom is vice chair and former chair of the International Association of Maritime Economists (IAME) and co-author of the international port organisation IAPH's World Ports Tracker reports. Last year he and colleagues Thanos Pallis (Greece) and Jean-Paul Rodrigue (USA) published the authoritative handbook 'Port Economics, Management and Policy'.
