Name Responsible Activity "Department of Art, music and theatre sciences" "Christel Stalpaert" "The Department of Art, music and theatre sciences brings together four research areas: (1) Musicology (2) Visual Arts (3) Theatre and performing arts (4) Architecture, historic preservation and history of interior and design" "Department of Public Health and Primary Care" "Olivier DegommeSara Willems" "The Department of Public Health and Primary Care is part of the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Its research is centered around the area of public health and primary care." "Energy, Climate and Green Economy" "Policy development of environmental policies on climate, air, energy, green economy and deep subsoilEnvironmental policy regulations for the themes of air, energy, climate & green economyPolicy implementation of environmental policies on climate, air, energy, green economy and deep subsoilAir pollution prevention and control policy" "Particle Physics Group" "Pierre Van Mechelen" "The Elementary Particle Physics group (EDF) has a long tradition in experimental and phenomenological research of high-energy collisions produced at the highest-energy particle accelerators and colliders in the world. The emphasis lies on multi-particle production processes, the experimental study of quantumchromodynamics, the mechanism of diffractive collisions, Higgs search and supersymmetry. The group presently participates in - the H1 experiment at the HERA electron/positron-proton collider in DESY, Hamburg. Recent activities involved the installation of a novel proton spectrometer in the HERA proton beamline for the study of virtual photon diffraction. -the CMS experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, now under construction in CERN, Geneva, and due to start up in 2007. The group is actively involved in the large international team responsible for the construction of the (forward) central tracking detector, built from silicon sensors. The central tracker contains about 250 square metres of such Si detectors. The group played a leading role in the design and construction of automatic long-term-teststations for the sensors, and in read-out electronics for the CMS-tracket data-acquisition system. Other activities include physics and detector design studies for the CMS 'Forward Physics' programme." "Forest, Nature and Landscape" "Bart Muys" "Overall, the research carried out in this laboratory focuses on the spatial and quantitative assessment of biological and man-induced patterns and processes at the landscape and habitat level both in rural, urban and natural settings. We aim at coupling traditional research on forestry, landscape elements, land use, and biotic communities with earth observation, spatial data sciences, the statistical modeling environment, and planning tools. To that extent, intergrated use is made of field survey and inventory techniques, digital and photographic remote sensing, geographical/land information and global positioning system technologies (GIS,L IS,GPS), multivariate data analysis methods (ordination and classification), decision support system (DDS) approaches, life cycle assessment (LCA) routines etc. Specifically of concern are ecologically based models at micro and macro scales, the biotic aspects of forest, nature and landscape management, land use monitoring (actual and potential), and planning tools within the concepts of optimization, sustainability and societal acceptance. * Modeling and understanding of spatial heterogeneity, including the effects of isolation and fragmentation in the landscape, the impact of heterogeneity on biotic and abiotic processes and on biodiversity and its components. * Biomass, leaf area index, and growth efficiency monitoring of green canopies. * Multi-scale intergration of earth observation data and ground information into environmental data bases, operational monitoring tools, and decision support systems. * Integration of remote sensing, GIS, GPS, field survey, and telemetry to evaluate dynamic habitat use at the landscape level. * Assessment of the possibilities and quantification of the impacts of planning and management and ecological restoration measures on biodiversity of nature, forest areas and landscape elements (incl. the role of seed banks and dispersal of plant an animal species). * Assessment of forest regeneration, with among others, natural regeneration of oak. * Development of cost-effective and sustainable silvicultural practices. * Modeling of the interaction between microwave energy and vegetative land cover. * Landscape research as part of rural planning and environmental impact studies. * Assessment and monitoring of multifunctional use of forests, nature areas, green spaces and rural landscapes. * Research on forest inventory, forest management and forest sustainability. * Imagery-based landscape typology procedures and classifications * Expert systems for nature, forest and landscape inventory and classifications and management in rural as well as in urban environments. * Operational change detection methods in nature and forest ecosystems. * Land-use and vegetation assessment/mapping in temperate and tropical regions. * Integration of image analysis results in GIS environments. * Derivation from remote sensing data and field surveys of descriptive and predictive habitat models, probabilistic habitat usage models, and biotope fragmentation indices for a range of plant and animal species. * Synthesis studies on nature, forest and landscape management and ecological restoration. * Impact studies of land use regimes on the composition, structure and diversity of forest ecosystems (historical ecology). * Environmental impact studies." "Department of Oncology" "Baki Topal" "The Department of Oncology at the KU Leuven fosters synergy in innovative oncological research. By creating a close link between bed and bench and by capitalizing on advanced technologies, our researchers aim to unravel key molecular mechanisms underlying the development and progression of cancer and to maximize opportunities to translate these findings into better clinical biomarkers, adaptive strategies and innovative treatments" "Translational Neurobiology" "Our laboratory is interested in understanding how complex and multifactorial neurodegenerative diseases are generated through the interaction of networks of genes and proteins." "Verstrepen Lab" "Qi TangKevin VerstrepenFusheng Zhang" "Investigating the molecular mechanisms that allow organisms in general, and microbes in particular to swiftly adapt to environmental changes and stress, either through genetic and epigenetic changes, or by adapting gene expression and exploiting biological noise and bet-hedging, translating our findings into applications in white and red biotechnology, generation of superior yeast strains for the production of beer, wine, bread, chocolate, ethanol, biofuel, bioplastics and biochemicals, proteins and pharmaceutics." "Department of Animal Sciences and Aquatic Ecology" "Veerle Fievez" "Research, education, and services to society in relation to the various contributions of animals to human wellbeing (including the sustainable production of healthy food) and the evaluation of anthropogenic influence on the environment (in relation to its optimal and sustainable use)"