Department of Structural Engineering and Building Materials

Prof. dr. ir.-arch. Jan Belis

Jan_Belis

Name: Jan Belis
Title: Prof. dr. ir.-arch.
Function: Full Professor
T: +32 9 264 54 78
E: Jan.Belis@UGent.be

Secretariat: Mrs. Christel Malfait (T + 32 9 264 55 36)

Overview

Jan Belis is professor at Ghent University since 2008. He was director of the Laboratory for Research on Structural Models (LMO) up till the merging of four former labs into the current Magnel-Vandepitte Laboratory in 2018. He holds a MSc in engineering: architecture and a PhD in Structural Engineering, both from Ghent University, and he was visiting scholar at Delft University of Technology (NL), Universität Stuttgart (DE), École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (CH, 2x) and University of Trieste (IT). In addition, he was Full Professor at Eindhoven University of Technology, Chair of Material Related Structural Design: Glass Structures, Eindhoven (NL) (2015-2020).

Research activities

Jan Belis’ interests comprise construction, special structures and the overlapping area between structural engineering and architecture.
He has a particular research focus on structural applications of glass , ranging from material level to structural system level. His experience covers e.g. glass edge strength, visco-elastic response of novel interlayers, adhesives, buckling, hybrid glass-steel components, post-fracture behaviour, robustness of glass structures, behaviour of glass in fire, glass modification by laser, lased sensors in glass, pathology, and more.
Furthermore, he has also worked on, amongst others, thin-walled steel structures, composite ice shells, innovative earthen shells and bamboo structures.

Publications

  • Jan Belis is author of more than 290 scientific publications, mainly in peer-reviewed journals and in proceedings of international conferences. The full list is available at: https://biblio.ugent.be/person/801001292379

Committees and working groups

  • Promotor of DuraBUILDmaterials knowledge and technology transfer cluster;
  • Member of ( inter)national standardisation committees, including TC250 SC11 preparing the oncoming Eurocode on Design of Glass Structures;
  • Co-organiser and/or Chair of several international conferences, including “Challenging Glass” conference series 2014-present and “Future Visions” annual international symposium of the IASS, Amsterdam, 2015;
  • Scientific Committee member of major international conferences (including “Glass Performance Days” (GPD), “Engineered Transparency”, “GlassConGlobal”, “International Conference on Structures and Architecture” (ICSA));
  • Founding member and Executive Council member of the International Association of Structures and Architecture;
  • Member of (inter)national engineering associations, including ie-net, IABSE, IASS and RILEM;
  • Chair of the past EU COST Action TU0905 “Structural Glass – Novel Design Methods and Next Generation Products”.

Editorial activities

  • Editor-in-Chief of “Glass Structures & Engineering” journal, Springer Nature;
  • Editorial Board Member of “Journal of Façade Design and Engineering”, IOS Press;
  • Editorial Board Member of “Architecture, Structures and Construction”, Springer Nature;
  • Guest Editor of Special Issue Glass, Journal of Façade Design and Engineering, Eds. J. Belis and C. Louter, Vol. 2 No. 1-2 (2014);
  • Editor of COST Action TU0905 Mid-Term Conference on Structural Glass, Ed. J. Belis, C. Louter, D.Mocibob, CRC Balkema, 2013;
  • Editor of Challenging Glass 4 & COST Action TU0905 Final Conference, Ed. Louter, Bos, Belis, Lebet, CRC Balkema, 2014, DOI: https://doi.org/10.7480/cgc.4;
  • Editor of Challenging Glass 5 Conference Proceedings, Ed. Belis, Bos, Louter, TU Delft Open Access, 2016, DOI: https://doi.org/10.7480/cgc.5;
  • Editor of Challenging Glass 6 Conference Proceedings, Ed. Louter, Bos, Belis, Veer, Nijsse, TU Delft Open Access, 2018, DOI: https://doi.org/10.7480/cgc.6;
  • Editor of Challenging Glass 7 Conference Proceedings, Ed. Belis, Bos, Louter, TU Delft Open Access, 2020, DOI: https://doi.org/10.7480/cgc.7;
  • Editor of Challenging Glass 8 Conference Proceedings, Ed. Belis, Bos, Louter, TU Delft Open Access, 2022, DOI: https://doi.org/10.47982/cgc.8;
  • Editor of Challenging Glass 9 Conference Proceedings, Ed. Louter, Bos, Belis, TU Delft Open Access, 2024, DOI: https://doi.org/10.47982/cgc.9.

Current teaching activities

  • Statics of structures;
  • Structural systems in architectural design;
  • Construction of buildings;
  • Building construction II;
  • Glass and façade structures;
  • Spatial structures;
  • Dimensioning of structures;
  • Model, make, measure (project)