A renowned scientific institution, ARSOM was founded in 1928, with the principal mission of promoting and coordinating scientific research on tropical and subtropical regions. By being invited to join the Academy, Professor Johan Yans is making his expertise even more available to the international scientific community, as well as to society. With a PhD in earth sciences, he devotes his research to the characterization and management of geological resources worldwide. "I work essentially on two axes. The first concerns minerals, i.e. the geological resources exploited underground, and their management around the world. The idea, through my field and laboratory research, is to demonstrate just how precious these resources are. And yet, today, our society continues to exploit them abundantly to fuel many of our everyday uses: telephones, computers, cars, etc. This applies not only to metals, but also to the environment. This applies not only to metals, the extraction of which is now fairly well publicized, but also to substances such as sand, clay, limestone, ... There is an urgent need to better manage the extraction of these materials, especially when they are not a priori necessary", alerts the geologist. "The other axis to which I devote my research work aims to determine the age of fossil dinosaurs and mammals that are being discovered all over the World". Johan Yans was invited to join ARSOM mainly because of his numerous field missions in overseas countries.

Research missions around the world

In addition to organizing conferences and sharing knowledge, one of the Academy's missions is to facilitate contacts between Belgian scientists and their counterparts in overseas countries. "This is particularly pleasing and interesting for any scientist. On the one hand, it allows me to share my expertise, but also to enrich it through new research opportunities and collaborations," Johan Yans emphasizes. In particular, by becoming an Academician, Johan Yans hopes to forge new contacts with Maghreb countries, including Morocco and Tunisia. These countries are of great interest in terms of minerals, and he has long maintained contacts with them for various research projects. The ambition is also to envisage partnerships on a pedagogical level by involving UNamur geology students.

Three "classes" within RAOS

The ARSOM has the particularity of being multidisciplinary, as it brings together in three classes, Belgian and foreign scientists specialized in human sciences, natural and medical sciences as well as applied sciences known as techniques. This is how anthropologists, historians, sociologists, linguists or zoologists, botanists, geographers, doctors or veterinarians will rub shoulders with civil engineers and agronomists during work sessions aimed at organizing one congress or another or debating one project or another. It is the only federal and bilingual Academy, and thus brings together full and associate members, active overseas, from the four corners of the country. (Source: ARSOM website)

Johan Yans joins since October 2023, the casse des sciences techniques.

Find out more about ARSOM: https://www.kaowarsom.be/fr

Johan Yans, at the heart of a France Télévisions documentary devoted to the Diamond trade

In a documentary "Diamonds: what are our engagement rings hiding? ", broadcast on December 18 at 9:05pm on France 5, as part of the program "Sur le Front", journalist Hugo Clément, reveals the hidden face of the mining industry, particularly in Botswana. He takes viewers to factories on the other side of the world where synthetic diamonds are mass-produced. He also takes us on a tour of French jewelers who make diamond rings. Professor Johan Yans was interviewed at length for this documentary, for which he contributes his expertise in mineral exploitation. Johan Yans accompanied the France télévisions team in various sequences of the documentary. The urgent need to dispense with diamonds in a priori unnecessary uses, is one of the messages the geologist puts across in this documentary.