New KVCV honorary members

Marie-Josée Janssens studied chemistry at the State University Centre Antwerp (RUCA) and at Ghent State University (RUG), where she also obtained her doctorate. She combined the role of teacher in secondary education with that of diocesan inspector, later educational adviser in chemistry and chemistry curriculum chair for general secondary education within Catholic education. From 1987 she was a researcher and practical lecturer at KU Leuven. In 2003 she became the titular holder of the chemistry teacher training programme there until her emeritus status in 2012. Marie-Josée has always devoted herself wholeheartedly to chemistry education. She was involved in numerous continuing professional development courses, served as a jury member in several science competitions, and is the author of many publications and syllabi. Marie-Josée was enormously active within the Education & Training section. Since 2004 and to this day she has been a member of the organising committee of the Flemish Chemistry Olympiad, and between 2009 and 2016 she served as chair of that committee.

Rudy Senten obtained his degree of licentiate in chemistry at RUG and subsequently worked as a teacher in Antwerp between 1966 and 1972. In 1972 he became a chemist at the Antwerp Municipal Laboratory, specialising in food and water analysis. He obtained a doctorate in science at the VUB in 1981. He concluded his active career in 2007. Rudy is the driving force behind three KVCV sections: HTC, Food, and History. In 1990, Rudy was a co-founder, together with the late Robert Smits and Pol Van Hee, of the biennial International Symposium on Hyphenated Techniques in Chromatography and Separation Technology (HTC), which has been organised under the auspices of the KVCV and the Royal Society of Chemistry since 2005. To this day he continues to ensure that everything runs smoothly behind the scenes.

Arsène Lepoivre obtained his doctorate in chemistry at RUG in 1963. Between 1965 and 2000 he was a teaching member at RUCA. Arsène has been a member of the KVCV for 60 years and was involved in many activities of the Education & Training section as well as the History section, of which he served as chair between 1996 and 2001. He possesses exceptional didactic gifts and is well known for incorporating as many illustrative experiments as possible into his lectures. Arsène was involved in many KVCV publications and has written approximately 70 articles in this journal between 2005 and the present day. For many years he was a highly valued member of the Flemish editorial board of the journal.

Roger Dommisse studied chemistry at RUG and subsequently obtained a doctorate in chemistry at the University Institution Antwerp in 1976. He then progressed through the full academic ladder to the position of full professor at RUCA, later the University of Antwerp, until his emeritus status in 2013. He is the promoter of many licentiate and doctoral theses, and the author or co-author of more than 150 peer-reviewed publications and of approximately 180 presentations and posters at international conferences in the field of NMR and MRI. He received an honorary doctorate from the University of Bucharest in 2007. Roger has been a member of the KVCV for 50 years and, for more than 25 years to this day, has served as the KVCV delegate to the European Chemical Society. In addition, Roger has been active as vice-chair of the Kekulé cycle since 2009.

Guy Temmerman obtained his degree of licentiate in chemistry at RUG in 1971 and subsequently joined the Central Laboratory of the Ministry of Economic Affairs. Over the following 27 years he pursued a career from inspector to director within the Food Inspection service of the Ministry of Public Health. In 2000 he contributed to the establishment of the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain, where from 2004 he served as director of the Flemish inspection services until his retirement in 2009. Guy has been involved in various publications on food legislation and nutrition. Guy has been active within the Food section for 40 years. Between 1999 and 2002 he served on the Board of Directors of the KVCV. He represented the KVCV for many years in the Division of Food Chemistry within EuChemS.

Jean Van de Weerdt graduated in 1965 with a licentiate in chemistry from KU Leuven. He subsequently taught at KTA-2 in Genk and at the Municipal Humanities School in Dilsen-Stokkem. He is the author of numerous chemistry textbooks for secondary education. Between 1994 and 2008 he was an educational adviser in chemistry within community education. From 2004 to 2014, Jean served as chair of the Education & Training section. He combined this with a position on the Board of Directors of the KVCV between 2008 and 2012. Jean also represented the KVCV and the interests of chemistry education for several years in the Communications Working Group of essenscia.