Gerard Govers

Gerard Govers is a professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at KU Leuven. His research covers a wide range of topics related to the earth’s surface. These include soil erosion and sediment transport, geomorphological processes, land use change, and human impact on the global carbon cycle. His research is based mainly in the Belgium Loam Belt, but also covers regions of Australia, Brazil, Ethiopia, Ecuador and the USA.

Govers has co-published more than 300 papers in international refereed journals and book chapters. In 2009, he received the Bagnold Award from the European Geosciences Union.

Since 2017 he is Vice Rector Sustainability at KU Leuven. Under his impulse KU Leuven aims to become a CO2-neutral university. In this role Govers promotes the idea of sustainability among students and staff, and focuses on a greener travel policy and sustainable business development. He also heads the Science & Technology group, which includes 4,000 researchers and 20,000 students from all scientific and technological domains.