42 Notable alumni of
University of Antwerp
Updated:
The University of Antwerp is 1167th in the world, 415th in Europe, and 8th in Belgium by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 42 notable alumni from the University of Antwerp sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff.
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Peter Piot
- Enrolled in the University of Antwerp
- In 1980 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in microbiology
- Occupations
- microbiologistphysicianvirologistuniversity teacherpolitician
- Biography
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Sir Peter Karel, Baron Piot is a Belgian-British microbiologist known for his research into Ebola and AIDS.
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Jan Jambon
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Johan "Jan" Martin Jozef Jambon is a Belgian businessman and politician of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) who has been serving as a Deputy Prime Minister and as the Minister of Finance, Pensions, National Lottery and Federal Culture Institutions in the De Wever Government since february 2025. Before that he served as Minister-President of Flanders from 2019 to 2024. He replaced Kris Peeters as a member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives in 2007. The N-VA was, at that time, partnered with the Christian-Democratic and Flemish party. In June 2010 and May 2014 he was re-elected on an N-VA list.
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Bart Peeters
- Occupations
- radio personalitytelevision actorperforming artistactordrummer
- Biography
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Bart August Maria Peeters is a Belgian singer, musician, television presenter and actor.
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Filip Dewinter
- Occupations
- politicianjournalistactor
- Biography
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Philip Michel Frans "Filip" Dewinter is a Belgian politician, journalist and commentator. He is one of the leading members of Vlaams Belang, a right-wing Flemish nationalist and secessionist political party.
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Manto Tshabalala-Msimang
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Mantombazana "Manto" Edmie Tshabalala-Msimang OMSS was a South African politician. She was Deputy Minister of Justice from 1996 to 1999 and served as Minister of Health from 1999 to 2008 under President Thabo Mbeki. She also served as Minister in the Presidency under President Kgalema Motlanthe from September 2008 to May 2009.
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Kristof Calvo
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Kristof Calvo y Castañer is a Belgian politician. He is a member of the Flemish left-wing green party. At the moment he is a federal representative. In the period 2014-2021, Calvo was rotating parliamentary group leader of Ecolo-Groen in the federal Chamber of Representatives. Since January 2013, he has been a councillor in Mechelen and since 2018 he is the leader of the joint list of liberals, greens and independents in the city council.
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Kris Peeters
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Kris Peeters is a Belgian politician of the Christian Democratic and Flemish who served as vice-president of the European Investment Bank (EIB) from 2021 to 2024. Earlier in his career, he was Minister-President of Flanders (2007–2014), deputy prime minister and minister of economy and employment in the government of Prime Minister Charles Michel (2014–2019), and a Member of the European Parliament (2019–2021).
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Peter Mertens
- Occupations
- sociologistpolitician
- Biography
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Peter Mertens is a Belgian politician who led the Workers' Party of Belgium from 2008 to 2021. He has served as a member of the Chamber of Representatives since 2019, and as a municipal councilor in Antwerp since 2013.
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Liesbeth Homans
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Liesbeth Homans is a Belgian politician and is affiliated to New Flemish Alliance. She was elected as a member of the Flemish Parliament in 2009 and as a member of the Belgian Senate in 2010. She has served as Minister-president of Flanders and Speaker of the Flemish Parliament since 2019.
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Johan Vande Lanotte
- Occupations
- university teacherpoliticianjuristlawyer
- Biography
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Johan Cyrille Corneel Vande Lanotte is a Belgian politician. He is a member of the SP.A, and became its party president on 15 October 2005. He handed down his leadership positions after the SP.A lost in the 2007 general election. Between 1995 and 2014, he served more than 13 years as Deputy Prime Minister, the longest period for a Flemish socialist after WW II. In his last term he served as the Minister of Economy, Consumer affairs and North Sea in the Di Rupo I Government. With the formation of a new Centre-Right federal government, which excluded his party, Johan Vande Lanotte returned to local politics in October 2014 in Ostend, where he took up his position as alderman for the economy and tourism at Ostend City Council. From August 2015 until the end of 2018 Vande Lanotte was the mayor of Ostend. During his political career he continued to work as a professor at the University of Ghent, specialized in Constitutional Law and Human Rights. Since 2019, he is a lawyer (senior legal advisor) in the law office Van Steenbrugge in Gent. He was the initiator of the Turkey Tribunal held in Geneva in September 2021. Vande Lanotte also published one of the six reports of the Turkey Tribunal entitled "Crimes Against Humanity under the Rome Statute in Turkey Today"
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Peter De Roover
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Peter De Roover is a Belgian politician, economist, journalist and former broadcaster and a member of the Flemish nationalist New Flemish Alliance party.
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Gerolf Annemans
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Gerolf Emma Jozef Annemans is a Belgian lawyer, journalist and politician of the Flemish nationalist party Vlaams Belang (VB) and formerly of its predecessor, the Vlaams Blok. He has been a member of the European Parliament since 2014, and a city councilor in Antwerp since 2000. He served as a member of the Chamber of Representatives from 1987 to 2014, and as a city councilor in Brasschaat from 1994 to 2000. He was the former leader of the VB from 2012 to 2014, and led the Vlaams Blok and VB parliamentary groups from 1991 to 2013.
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Dries Buytaert
- Occupations
- engineercomputer scientistprogrammer
- Biography
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Dries Buytaert is a Belgian open-source software programmer. He is the founder and lead developer of the Drupal content management system. He also serves as the CTO of Acquia.
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Johan Van Overtveldt
- Occupations
- university teacherpoliticianeconomistjournalist
- Biography
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Johan Van Overtveldt is a Belgian journalist and politician of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA). He served as Minister of Finance of Belgium from 2014 until 2018. He is currently a Member of the European Parliament since July 2024, where is serves as chair of the Budgetary committee.
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Pascal Smet
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Pascal Smet is a Belgian politician, member of Vooruit.
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Patrick Janssens
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Patrick Janssens is a Belgian former politician. He was a member of the SP.a and the former mayor of the port city Antwerp.
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Cathy Berx
- Enrolled in the University of Antwerp
- In 1998 graduated with doctorate in law
- Occupations
- juristpolitician
- Biography
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Cathy Hilde Raymond Berx is a Belgian Christian Democrat politician, jurist and governor of the province of Antwerp. Cathy Berx is married to Johan Meeusen, vice-rector and professor of European Law at the University of Antwerp, and has 2 children.
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Renée Jones-Bos
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Regina Veronica Maria "Renée" Jones-Bos is a Dutch civil servant and diplomat. She served as Ambassador of the Netherlands to Russia from 2016 to 2019. Previously, Jones-Bos was Ambassador to the United States in Washington, D.C. (2007–2012) and Secretary-General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague (2012–2016).
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Jos D'Haese
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Jos D'Haese is a Belgian politician who since 2019 has represented Antwerp Province in the Flemish Parliament, where he is the faction leader for the Workers' Party of Belgium, a socialist party with a Marxist background. D'Haese is also a member of the district council of Borgerhout and of the Belgian Senate.
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Nadia Sminate
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Nadia Sminate is a Belgian politician and is affiliated to the N-VA. She was elected as a member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives in 2010.
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Kong Quan
- Occupations
- diplomat
- Biography
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Kong Quan is a Chinese diplomat and politician who served as Chinese Ambassador to France and Monaco from 2008 to 2013.
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Philippe Muyters
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Philippe Muyters is a Belgian politician from the Flemish Region and is a member of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA).
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Karl Vanlouwe
- Enrolled in the University of Antwerp
- Graduated with licentiate
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Karl Vanlouwe is a Belgian politician and is affiliated to the N-VA. He was elected as a member of the Belgian Senate in 2010. Since 2015 he is a member of the European Alliance Group at the European Committee of the Regions.
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Hugo Coveliers
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Hugo F.V. Coveliers is a retired Belgian politician and lawyer. He was a member of the Belgian Chamber of People's Representatives between 1985 and 1995, and from 1993 to 2003. Since 2003, he has been a member of the Belgian Senate. He was a parliamentary chairman for the VLD in both chambers, from 1999 to 2003.
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Louis-Philippe Loncke
- Occupations
- engineerexplorerlecturer
- Biography
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Louis-Philippe Loncke is a Belgian explorer, adventurer and motivational speaker. In 2008, he achieved the world first crossing on foot of the length of the Simpson desert, which was a North to South traverse passing through its geographical center. In 2018, he traversed Tasmania during the austral winter without resupplies and was nicknamed the Mad Belgian by some Australians.
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Mieke Vogels
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Maria Bertha Charlotte Vogels (born 20 April 1954) Belgian politician from Flanders in the environmentalist party Groen!.
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Jos Geysels
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Josephus "Jos" Elisabeth A. M. Geysels is a former Belgian (Flemish) politician, and former Representative in the Belgian Chamber for the ecologist party Agalev for which he was party chairman. He resigned from the post in 2003, taking responsibility for the party's loss of power in the elections.
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Tom Ongena
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Tom Ongena is a Belgian politician for the Open Vld born in Germany and has served as chairman of the party since 2023.
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Dave Sinardet
- Occupations
- university teacherpolitical scientistcolumnist
- Biography
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Dave Sinardet is a Belgian political scientist, author and columnist.
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Lode Vereeck
- Occupations
- politicianuniversity teachereconomist
- Biography
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Lode Vereeck is a Belgian economist, professor and politician of the Vlaams Belang party, and formerly of the Open VLD and Lijst Dedecker.
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Luc Steels
- Years
- 1952-.. (age 73)
- Occupations
- university teacherartificial intelligence researcher
- Biography
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Luc Steels is a Belgian scientist and artist. Steels is considered a pioneer of Artificial Intelligence in Europe who has made contributions to expert systems, behavior-based robotics, artificial life and evolutionary computational linguistics. He was a fellow of the Catalan Institution for Research and Advanced Studies ICREA associated as a research professor with the Institute for Evolutionary Biology (UPF/CSIC) in Barcelona. He was formerly founding Director of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and founding director of the Sony Computer Science Laboratory in Paris. Steels has also been active in the arts collaborating with visual artists and theater makers and composing music for opera.
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Conny Aerts
- Occupations
- physicistastrophysicistastronomeruniversity teachermathematician
- Biography
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Conny Clara Aerts, born 26 January 1966, is a Belgian professor in astrophysics. She specialises in asteroseismology. She is associated with KU Leuven and Radboud University, where she leads the Chair in the Astroseismology group. In 2012, she became the first woman to be awarded the Francqui Prize in the category of Science & Technology. In 2022, she became the third woman to be awarded the Kavli Prize in Astrophysics for her work in asteroseismology.
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Stefaan Van Hecke
- Occupations
- politicianjuristlawyer
- Biography
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Stefaan Van Hecke is a Belgian politician. He is member of the Belgian Federal Parliament (Chamber of Representatives of Belgium) for the ecological party Groen!. He was first elected in June 2007. He was re-elected in 2010, 2014, and 2019.
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Michel Van den Bergh
- Years
- 1960-.. (age 65)
- Occupations
- mathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Michel Van den Bergh is a Belgian mathematician and professor at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and does research at Hasselt University. His research interest is on the fundamental relationship between algebra and geometry. In 2003, he was awarded the Francqui Prize on Exact Sciences.
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Mamadou Moustapha Ba
- Occupations
- official
- Biography
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Mamadou Moustapha Ba was a Senegalese politician of the Alliance for the Republic (APR). He served as Minister of the Economy and Finance in the first and second governments of Prime Minister Amadou Ba.
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Vivian Liska
- Occupations
- university teacherman of lettersGermanistliterary scholar
- Biography
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Vivian Liska, born in New York City, United States is a professor of German literature and director of the Institute of Jewish Studies at the University of Antwerp, Belgium. Since 2013 she is also distinguished visiting professor at Hebrew University, Jerusalem.
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Dirk De Ridder
- Years
- 1966-.. (age 59)
- Biography
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Dirk De Ridder is a Belgian neurosurgeon. He is a professor of neurosurgery at the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand. De Ridder spends half his time in New Zealand and half in Belgium, involved in setting up a dedicated neuromodulation clinic.
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Hugo J. Bellen
- Years
- 1953-.. (age 72)
- Occupations
- geneticistresearcher
- Biography
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Hugo J. Bellen is a professor at Baylor College of Medicine and an investigator emeritus at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute who studies genetics and neurobiology in the model organism, Drosophila melanogaster, the fruit fly.
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Jan Wouters
- Occupations
- university teacheracademiclegal scholarwriterlaw teacher
- Biography
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Jan Maria Florent Wouters is a Belgian academic. He is Jean Monnet Chair, and Professor of International Law and International Organizations at KU Leuven, where he is also Director of its Centre for Global Governance Studies and Institute for International Law.
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Ronald Rousseau
- Occupations
- mathematicianuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Ronald Rousseau is a Belgian mathematician and information scientist. He has obtained an international reputation for his research on indicators and citation analysis in the fields of bibliometrics and scientometrics.
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Dirk Wouters
- Years
- 1955-.. (age 70)
- Enrolled in the University of Antwerp
- In 1975 studied jurisprudence, Bachelor of Arts, and economics
- Occupations
- diplomatuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Dirk Wouters was Belgium's ambassador to the United States.
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Lou Van Beirendonck
- Years
- 1960-.. (age 65)
- Occupations
- psychologist
- Biography
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Lodewijk Constant Van Beirendonck (born 1960) is a Belgian organizational psychologist, management consultant, and Associate Professor of Human resource management at the Antwerp Management School, known for his work on competence management.
