Marine Sciences History

The Belgian coastline measures only 67 km. Still, about 1000 marine scientists and specialized staff are involved in coastal and marine sciences. Whether you look for studies on marine seismics, gashydrates, climate change, coastal defence, tidal and wave energy, chemical analysis of marine food sources, marine spatial planning, or aquaculture (brown shrimp, mussels), microscopic algae: in Belgium you can find the expertise! Scientists, experts and remarkable facts from the 18th, 19th and early 20th century also reserved a special place for Belgian marine sciences in history

This is an on-going project. At the moment only available in Dutch:

• Curriculum Vitae or short descriptions of the life and work of famous marine scientists and remarkable persons for marine sciences in Belgium
  • Pierre-Joseph Van Beneden
  • Alphonse Meunier
  • Jean Massart
  • August de Maere-Limnander
  • Philippe Dautzenberg
  • Alphonse Renard
  • Gustave Gilson
  • Simon Stevin
  • Edouard Van Beneden
  • Paul Pelseneer
  • Gerardus Mercator
  • Théodore-Augustin Mann

• An overview article on pioneers and breaking events in Belgian marine and coastal sciences, and a state-of -the-art of the current marine research landscape

• A timeline that reconstructs the history of marine sciences in Flanders and Belgium: marine scientists and their research, marking events and the institutional framework

• The IMIS (Integrated Marine Information System) contains information on (Flemish) marine and coastal scientists: their coordinates, publications, projects and data sets are advertised through this specialized search engine. The database also contains data on competent administrations, educational centres and companies.

  Searching for Belgian expertise in marine, estuarine and coastal reserach:

  • in a certain discipline
  • in a certain institute