Ghent

Confirmed Speakers

• Johan Braeckman
  Johan Braeckman (°1965) was born in Wetteren, Belgium. He studied philosophy at Ghent University, Human Ecology at the Free University of Brussels and Environmental History at the University of California, Santa Barbara. His doctoral thesis was on the influence of the theory of evolution on philosophy. He published books on Darwin and Evolutionary Biology; Cloning; the History of Philosophy; Bioethics, and articles in peer reviewed journals. Several hours of his lectures on Darwin and evolutionary biology, and on the basic principles of Critical Thinking, have been published on audio-cd by Home Academy (the Netherlands). At Ghent University he teaches courses on the history of philosophy, the history of biology, philosophical anthropology and on critical thinking. For five years, he also was a guest professor at Amsterdam University, the Netherlands, were he taught courses on bioethics and the philosophy of science. At Ghent University he is co-director of the research group The Moral Brain. Together with ten collaborators, with backgrounds in moral sciences, philosophy, psychology, biology, medicine and other disciplines, The Moral Brain group studies, theoretically and experimentally, human moral behaviour.
• Bas Haring
  Bas Haring is a Dutch philosopher and professor, teaching 'Public understanding of science'. He wrote several books that explain science very easily, for example the evolution theory and the function of the brains. Aside from his academical pursuits and his books, he also writes colums and presented some tv-programs.
• Louis Jonckheere
  Louis Jonckheere is a true tech enterpreneur. He started his professional career at Netlog, where he was responsible for executing Netlog general strategy in worldwide markets. Over there Louis managed to initiate and close several big deals for Netlog & was responsible for the commercial set-up of new initiatives. In april 2010, Louis founded the mobile development agency In the Pocket. In a year time, In the Pocket grew from 3 to 13 people and managed to close big contracts with companies such as VRT, Mars International, Samsonite, SBS Belgium, Samsung, etc. Next to In the Pocket Louis has set up a new company with his partners, called Showpad, An online platform where companies can easily create there tablet application for sales & presentations.
• Dirk de Ridder
  Dirk De Ridder studied Medicines at Ghent University. He is specialized in Neurology and obtained his Ph.D on a ‘Darwinian neurosurgical approach to tinnitus’ at Antwerp University. Apart from being a neurosurgeon, a professor, he is also a founder and director of BRAI²N (Brain Research center Antwerp for Innovative & Interdisciplinary Neuromodulation) and a founder and director of TRI Tinnitus Clinic (TRI: Tinnitus Research Initiative) Dirk is a strong believer in integration of exploration and science, so he applies scientific methods on his patients to innovative exploratory ideas. He is continuously doing research on medical innovations and he has a world-wide reputation for his research on religion and morality in the brain. He is a speaker on many conferences all around the world.
• Ellis ten Dam
  Ellis ten Dam is a consultant and works as a director for a team of Royal Haskoning consultants in Rotterdam. Her focus is on sustainable matches between organizations and their environment, working on beneficial real estate. She develops strategic real estate plans and programs in which theme's such as Sustainability, New Way of Working and Integral (Leasing) Contracts are incorporated. By thinking in chains of stakeholders over the whole life cycle to develop and add value, business cases are made positive. Besides consulting programs and projects for Public and Corporate clients, Ellis ten Dam also teaches at the Amsterdam School of Real Estate.
• Philip van de Gehuchte
  Philip van de Gehuchte runs a cross-media company and is part of the art collective "LeMondeDumas", whose main goal is innovating new ways to revive the zeitgeist from the past in a modern way. One specific project is the Decap Beat Machine. A large dance organ, filled with automated instruments, customized and controlled realtime in a "re-mixed" version for today's dancefloor.
• Patrick Vyncke
  Patrick Vyncke (° 1964) became already fascinated by advertising and consumer behavior as a young child spending large part of his time in the small grocery that was ran by his mother. It was the time of countless new products being launched and it was the time of … the Marlboro Man! And the little boy wondered how all these products could be so fascinating for the many clients (mainly neighbours) that visited his mom’s store almost on a daily basis. Even more he was puzzled by the question how smoking could transform you into a real cowboy … To get a better understanding of such strange consumer behaviour, he engaged in studying sociology (Bachelor). Later he turned to communication studies (Master) because he also wanted to gain more insight into the workings of persuasive communication in general, and of advertising in particular. After his university studies (both at Ghent University – Belgium) he became a research assistant at the National Fund for Scientific Research (Belgium). His NFSR-period resulted in a Ph.D. thesis on advertising and semiotics. This Ph.D. degree opened the way to an academic career at the Department of Communication Sciences (Ghent University ), first as a research assistant, but soon after as a professor, even till this day. Currently, he is responsible for the courses on advertising, consumer behaviour and semiotics. His main research interest is in applying the insights of evolutionary psychology to each of these topics.
• Rauw en Onbesproken
  Fatih was born in Ghent in 1985, half Turkish, half Belgian. His first album “Contradictio in Terminis” was released in June 2010, labelled by ‘Rauw en Onbesproken’. His music is pure, authentic, and right-down. The album is describing himself in a way, as a contradiction in terminis. His identity is multi-faceted, full of contradictions. He’s a back street guy, a sociologist, a Muslim, a friend, an enemy. His music works as a voice for his mind, as a way of self-therapy, expressing himself. Making music is very important to him, he was writing as soon as he was able to construct words. Connected to the city of Ghent, he wrote the song ‘9000’.