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Evert Ebraert

Grants & Incentives Consultant at LEYTON Benelux

Evert Ebraert is Grants & Incentives Consultant at LEYTON Benelux.


"In 2007 on a SID-in Leuven, I first came into contact with a TONA professor who convinced me to keep my options as broad as possible by starting a bachelor in engineering science rather than my initial idea of architecture. Following his advice, I started my VUB career the year after and pursued a master in Photonics. I got the opportunity for an internship at the National Technical University of Athens, which gave me experience with telecom. The last year I could finish my studies at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm with a master thesis on the design and fabrication of nano-structure for solar cells.

In the last Master year, late in the evening (or afternoon? Hard to tell sometimes in Stockholm), I had a call regarding the possibility of starting a PhD at B-PHOT. The proposed PhD project would handle a practical multidisciplinary issue in collaboration with industry (designing and fabricating a novel telecom fiber connector). This project was enlightening not only on a scientific level, but also for personnel development, mainly in terms of communication skills.

The strength of B-PHOT, in my opinion, lies in the fact that they stay in touch with industry and have many (international) collaborations. This world is multidisciplinary in nature, which is hard to tackle alone. The research performed and skills learned are hence not aimed at purely academic theoretical improvement, but rather at solving real world problems in a collaborative environment. Due to this approach, I learned many valuable skills and lessons which are still very useful, even tough today I’m not directly professionally involved in photonics."