On Friday 6 February 2026, VLIZ hosted the VLIZ PhD Symposium at the InnovOcean Campus in Ostend. This one-day event brought together PhD researchers, supervisors, external advisors and collaborators. It highlighted the diversity, quality and societal relevance of doctoral research conducted within the VLIZ Research Department in close collaboration with universities.
The symposium featured 17 PhD presentations, showcasing the doctoral research within the three research divisions at VLIZ – covering ocean health and human health (OHH), coastal climate change (CCC) and marine observation (MOC). Each presentation sparked lively discussion, underlining the interdisciplinary nature of marine research and the value of in-person scientific exchange.
Beyond the presentations, the symposium offered ample opportunity for networking, in-depth discussions and PhD progress meetings, supported by dedicated side meeting rooms. A networking lunch and a closing reception further encouraged informal exchanges between internal and external participants.
The VLIZ PhD Symposium 2026 once again demonstrated the strength of VLIZ’s doctoral research programme and the importance of bringing together its extended research community to share ideas, foster collaboration and advance marine science.
Programme
• Martha Stevens (OHH) – Establishing a scientific basis towards a reliable cost-benefit analysis and revenue model for nature-based coastal management (FINESSE)
• Morgan Vervoort (CCC) – Mapping the Axial Channel, southern North Sea
• Andrea van Langen Rosón (CCC) – Studying coastal carbon dynamics at unprecedented resolution: A case study of the North Sea
• Maqbool Ahmad (MOC) – Plankton metagenomics and community dynamics in global oceans
• Warre Dekoninck (CCC) – Reconstructing submerged Middle and Late Pleistocene paleolandscapes on the outer Belgian Continental Shelf
• Rutendo Musimwa (OHH) – Predicting jellyfish blooms in the North Sea: A climate-driven early warning system
• Despina Kyriakoudi (CCC) – Late Quaternary channel system in the southern North Sea
• Wyona Schütte (OHH) – Explosive legacies: Marine bacterial indicators for wartime TNT pollution
• Bram Cuyx (MOC) – Investigating underwater soundscape dynamics in urbanized marine environments
• Annika Eske (MOC) – Characterizing Belgian marine heatwaves and their impacts on plankton dynamics
• Evert Lambrechts (CCC) – Worth the gamble? Tourism and the embeddedness of gambling in seaside resorts: the case of Ostend at the Belgian coast (1878–1930)
• Sofya Aoufi (MOC) – The impact of operational offshore wind farm noise on the presence and distribution of harbour porpoises
• Elias De Craene (OHH) – Coastal video exposure and its effects on emotions: An innovative experimental design
• Irene Parmentier (MOC) – Sand eel ecology in the Belgian part of the North Sea
• Juliette Grandjean (OHH) – Towards assessing combined microplastics and environmental change effects on marine organisms
• Julia Kinet (OHH) – Exploring preventive health strategies: The impact of coastal walking on stress and cognitive function in older adults
• Maurie Keppens (CCC) – High-resolution coastal carbon dynamics and the impact of extreme events using machine learning techniques
