ULiège Ambassadors

Jean-Marie Klinkenberg is professor emeritus at the University of Liège, where he held the chair of Semiotics and Rhetoric. With a doctorate in Romance philology, he has devoted his career to language sciences, rhetoric, semiology, and Francophone literature. Author of more than 700 works translated into some 20 languages, his research has developed in two major directions. In linguistics and semiotics, he has distinguished himself within the Groupe μ, with works such as Rhétorique générale (1970), Traité du signe visuel (1992), and Principia semiotica (2015). In the field of Francophone cultures, he renewed the approach to Belgian literature, placing it in a social and institutional perspective. He chaired the oldest Centre d'Études Québécoises d'Europe (Center for Quebec Studies in Europe) for twelve years and founded the Centre d'études de la littérature belge (Center for Belgian Literature Studies). An intellectual engaged in public life, he has served three times as president of the Council for the French Language and Language Policy in Belgium. A visiting professor on several continents and honorary doctor of several universities, he was elected to the Royal Academy of Belgium in 1996 and was made an Officer of the Order of the Legion of Honor in 2025.

Jean-Pierre Latere is a Belgian scientist and entrepreneur of Congolese origin, specializing in biotechnology and cellular immunotherapy. Born in Lubumbashi, he moved to Belgium to study at the University of Liège, where he obtained a PhD in polymer chemistry. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Michigan State University, he began his career at Johnson & Johnson in Belgium and then in the United States, before joining the biotech company Cardio3 Biosciences (now Celyad Oncology) in Mont-Saint-Guibert in 2008, where he led several clinical programs in immuno-oncology and regenerative cardiology. He then moved to Dow Corning, where he headed up the Healthcare Science & Technology and Cosmetics divisions worldwide, before returning to Celyad Oncology, notably as Chief Operating Officer. In 2021, he founded EsoBiotec, a Walloon start-up dedicated to in vivo cell engineering to make cancer therapy more accessible, less expensive, and safer. This innovative approach led to the acquisition of the company by AstraZeneca in 2025, one of the most significant recent Belgian biotechnology successes. Jean-Pierre Latere remains CEO and continues to develop this new generation of cell therapies.

A biomedical engineer and PhD graduate from the University of Liège, Stéphanie van Loo specializes in droplet microfluidics, a technology that allows individual cells to be encapsulated and analyzed in tiny water droplets surrounded by oil. At the Microfluidics Lab at ULiège, she spent nearly ten years developing this innovative approach, culminating in the design of a system capable of sorting living cells at very high speed while preserving their viability. This research led to the creation of ModaFlow™, a compact, automated instrument designed to make microfluidics widely accessible to biologists. This technology has major applications in the discovery of therapeutic antibodies, oncology, immunology, and cell therapy, offering a powerful alternative to traditional methods for studying and manipulating rare, fragile, or high-value-added cells. In April 2022, she founded LiveDrop, a spin-off from her original laboratory. Now CEO and CTO of LiveDrop, she is pursuing her ambition to transform a laboratory innovation into a concrete tool for biomedical research.

Marie-Elisabeth Faymonville graduated with a doctorate in Medicine from the University of Liège and is a specialist in anaesthesia and intensive care. She also completed her doctorate in Clinical Science and holds an upper secondary education teacher training degree. On top of that, she is an Emeritus lecturer from ULiège. She began her career as a research fellow at the F.N.R.S. and, in 1992, she developed a new anaesthesia technique: hypnosedation. Various clinical studies and research work focused on investigating the neuroanatomical mechanisms of different states of consciousness, including hypnosis, have enabled her to promote hypnosis as an interesting tool in Medicine.

As head of the Algology - Palliative Care Department at Liège University Hospital from 2004 to 2018, she developed innovative approaches based on self-hypnosis/self-monitoring training for oncology and chronic pain patients. She has won 14 national and international scientific awards for teaching and sharing this technique and her discoveries around the world

Ambassador Philippe Kridelka has been Belgium’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations since 2020. His diplomatic career, which began at the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1987, has seen him hold posts in the embassies of Tehran, Warsaw, Singapore and the Sultanate of Brunei, as well as in Thailand, Laos, Myanmar and Cambodia. Philippe Kridelka has also worked for the Belgian Representation to the European Union, and as a diplomatic adviser to the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister. He was also head of the Private Office of the Director-General and director of the UNESCO Liaison Office in New York. From 2013 to 2016, he was Secretary-General of the Household of His Majesty King Philippe of Belgium.

Jean-Philippe Tock joined the Liège Space Center after graduating from the University of Liège with both a degree in electromechanical engineering, specialising in aeronautics, and an Engineering Certificate in industrial management. In 1999, he joined CERN’s Technology Department, where he contributed to the development of major projects relating to the interconnections of the superconducting magnets of the Large Hadron Collider. Since 2021, he has headed up the Accelerator Coordination and Engineering group within CERN’s Engineering Department. More recently, he was behind the signing of a framework collaboration agreement between CERN and ULiège, which should enable the two institutions to work on subjects of common interest.

Véronique De Keyser holds a doctorate in psychology from ULB and is a Professor Emeritus at ULiège specialising in human error in working environments (industry, health) and stress at work.  Dean of the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science (1990-1998), she chaired the European Work and Organizational Psychology Association.  A woman of commitment, she was a Member of the European Parliament from 2001 to 2014, where she was particularly active in defending human rights and women's rights in the Arab and Middle Eastern world.  Together with Denis Mukwege, Nobel Peace Prize winner and surgeon at Panzi Hospital, she initiated the process that led to the creation of the International Chair on "Violence against women and girls in conflicts", with the aim of setting up cooperation programs. She is currently President of the Centre d'Action Laïque.   

Jean-Marie Kayembe is a medical doctor from the University of Liège, professor of pneumology and former Vice-Dean and then Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Kinshasa (DRC Congo), and is currently Rector of UNIKIN.  From its Central Africa Platform in Kinshasa, ULiège works with Prof. Jean-Marie Kayembe on general health issues in Africa, and more specifically on the "One Health" concept, which is one of the priorities of the University's strategic plan. 

Jean Surdej holds a doctorate in astrophysics and is an honorary professor at ULiège and a visiting professor at Poznan University in Poland. Honorary research director of the FNRS, his main research activities focus on radiative transfer in expanding atmospheres, the inversion of the light curve of asteroids, the gravitational lensing effect and the International Liquid Mirror Telescope (ILMT) project.  Developed by Jean Surdej with his Indian and Canadian partners, the CSL and the Liège-based company AMOS, the telescope was inaugurated in March 2023 at the Devasthal Observatory in the central Himalayas in India. More than fifteen researchers from India and other countries have already benefited from this project to complete their theses.