The Omalius magazine for winter 2025-2026 is now available!

Omalius #39

• Challenges: How do researchers collaborate with stakeholders in society on a daily basis to transform ideas into concrete solutions that address current challenges?
• Expert: Meet Charlotte Beaudart, a researcher committed to healthy aging. A member of the Department of Biomedical Sciences and the NARILIS Research Institute, she has made a name for herself on the international scene in recent years by contributing to a better understanding and awareness of a disease: sarcopenia.
• Eureka: In the coming months, the University of Namur will participate in an exceptional space mission aboard the International Space Station (ISS), alongside Belgian astronaut Raphaël Liégeois. The BeBlob project, led by researchers Boris Hespeels (ILEE Institute) and Anne-Catherine Heuskin (NARILIS Institute), aims to study the DNA repair capabilities of a fascinating organism: the blob (Physarum polycephalum).
• Impact: How can we train teachers to be reflective, autonomous, and supportive? Since September 2023, the reform of initial teacher training has been profoundly transforming the teaching profession. This year, it is taking a new step forward with the replacement of the former teaching-oriented master's degrees and the agrégation by master's degrees in teaching sections 4 and 5. Led by FaSEF, in collaboration with the Faculties of Science and EMCP, the reform is accompanied by a strengthened partnership with HENALLUX.
• Guest: Discussion with Thomas Hertog, world-renowned Belgian cosmologist and professor at KU Leuven. A close colleague and friend of Stephen Hawking, in his book The Origin of Time he develops the famous English physicist's ultimate theories on the beginnings of the universe. Last November, he was a guest at the Grandes Conférences Namuroises, organized by UNamur.
• Tomorrow learn: Service-learning is an educational approach developed within the framework of several courses and disciplines at UNamur. In 2025, a new project emerged, led by Professor Géraldine Mathieu, in the field of children's and family rights. The concept? To create a mobile legal clinic, which will enable students to reach out to the most disadvantaged members of society.
• Far away: In 2025, UNamur joined the MAGIS Exchange international exchange program. With some 40 partners, it helps to train true citizens of the world who are aware of the challenges that lie ahead.
• The day when: Through the archives of the Moretus Plantin University Library (BUMP), immerse yourself in the history of the University of Namur, one of the oldest Jesuit universities in the world, founded in 1831, and discover the visit of the first King of the Belgians, Leopold I.
• Alumni: Meet Véronique Steukers, a chemist by training and now the first woman to head the global organization of nickel producers, the Nickel Institute. 

You can subscribe for free or request to receive the digital version of each issue of the magazine by filling out the form.