Rector Van de Walle
Madame Vice-Rector
Fellow honorary doctorands
Distinguished faculties
Respected students
Invited guests
Friends

It is a joy and an honor to be here today with all of you. I must be upfront about my relief that the invitation I received was not for a cantus celebration, because having absolutely no musical talent whatsoever you would find me cleaning the floor of this auditorium after you had all finished singing.

I do however know how to recognize talent in others. And in that spirit I celebrate the academic excellence of this historic institution on its 208th anniversary. I celebrate your long tradition of groundbreaking research and significant contributions to the world in the fields of medicine, biotechnology, materials science, psychology, history, and law among so many other fields of endeavour. These venerable halls have produced several Nobel Laureates, internationally recognized inventors and an astronaut. You have actually even figured out how to wrap 600 kilos of smoked ham around the pillars of the Aula Academica, an achievement for which you are due for the Nobel Prize in Physics.
I only wish that climate change, the global physics problem par excellence, could be as clearly solved.

On that front, we find ourselves at a time of profound gravity. We know our current path is unsustainable. Last year, our planet crossed the 1.5°C threshold for the first time – not a mere statistical milestone, but a stark reminder of our rapidly closing window for action. While greenhouse gas emissions continued their relentless rise in 2024, we witnessed over 40 nations going to the ballot box, and more this year. The consequences of those elections are unfolding in front of our disbelieving eyes, as reckless climate denial and irresponsible political confrontations threaten to unravel years of careful progress.

In addition to slowing down the decarbonization of our economies, what pains me deeply that in we are witnessing the dismantling of climate action as a unifying force for social justice, racial equality, women's opportunities, children's rights, protection of ancestral lands, and the health of both humans and ecosystems. These challenges are intimately interconnected – their intersectionality has taken us years to fully comprehend. And just as we had finally understood those crucial connections, they are being overthrown, not only in relation to climate but also as specific social and structural inequities. Precisely when we need radical collaboration to address global social and environmental challenges, the opposite is taking over in many corners of the world.

So what do we do? One immediate response is to look away and pretend it's not happening. But indifference will only lead to worsening conditions. Another response could be to export the responsibility to others, assuming we have no influence over the matter. Understandable, but not a response that helps to bring about any change.

The wiser option is to deeply ground ourselves in our agency, in our capacity to rise to the task. Let’s start by recognizing that we cannot abdicate the responsibility of leadership to current national leaders. If we don't have the leadership we want, we have to call forth the leadership we need. This is the moment for each one of us to step up and step in, discovering the leader within ourselves.

And friends, good leaders have a strong back and a soft front. Strong back, soft front!

The strong back is one you are all familiar with. It is about insightfully applying all our research capability, knowledge, data sets, analytical models, and technological capacities to the challenges we face. At Ghent University I don't have to talk about how to apply knowledge to the problems of the world, climate change and others. You stand for the fundamental role of any university: to be true to science and on that basis, help to build the future we want.

So I would like to offer some thoughts on the complementary soft front aspect of leadership. Like knowldege it also conveniently also begins with a K: Kindness.

You may be surprised by my choice, but let’s start by not confusing kindness with weakness. Kindness requires immense courage - the courage to choose compassion when it would be easier to choose indifference, the courage to reach across divides when it would be more comfortable to remain distant or even antagonistic.

In this era of confrontations, kindness becomes an act of radical support for each other, where each of us can think and act from our highest sense of self, with unbounded positive impact, because what makes kindness truly powerful is its ripple effect. Like dropping a stone in still water, each act creates waves that extend far beyond what we can see.

We know many things have to change. But we forget that all change occurs as the result of interactions between people. In this world of confrontations, Kindness has sadly become a scarce resource. We can ensure it remains a renewable resource and is constantly renewed. How the world would be different if each of our interactions were grounded in caring for each other, if kindness were the marrow of our bones.

Some people atribute to the renowned anthropologist Dr. Margaret Mead the story that she was once asked “what was the first sign of civilization?” After a thoughtful pause, she answered that the first sign of civilization was a healed femur bone.

30,000 years ago, in humanity’s earliest days, a broken thigh bone was a death sentence. Even if the victim could have survived the injury, they would not have been able to gather food for themselves or defend themselves against an animal attack. A broken thigh bone was a slow but certain death, unless some other person acted beyond their own self interest, out of compassion and kindness, to provide the necessary care over an extended period of time.

In our journey toward healing our fractured world, we would do well to recognize that civilization actually emerged not from dominance, but from vulnerability and care.

Just as our ancestors faced the choice between self-preservation or compassion, between isolation and connection, we stand at a decisive crossroads: Will we remain trapped in discrimination and confrontation? Or will we choose, with fierce determination, to walk the path of kindness, of solidarity with each other, of common purpose?

The brokenness we see today is not our final state. Like a plant breaking through harsh soil to reach sunlight, we must break through the walls that divide us, because in our interconnected world, when one part of humanity suffers, we all bear the wound.

Those of us alive right now can be the mindful guardians of a future based on care and connection. We have within us the capacity to transform any reality we are given into the reality we want - one where broken bones, broken spirits, and broken systems all find their healing.

This is the decisive decade not just for climate change, but for redefining what it means to be human. We could be in the midst of the most critical rite of passage humanity has ever experienced. We can choose to be cultivators of a world where healing happens through millions of small acts of care, rippling outward to touch every corner of society.

Friends, may each of you thrive in countless intentional acts of kindness. And may each of you bring that ray of light to a world that sorely needs it.

Dies Natalis

Rewatch the whole Dies Natalis ceremony