Reaching for the stars
He is a free spirit. “As a child I was always wandering around outside, building huts, counting stars.” He is self-deprecating: “I was interviewed for my PhD by a committee of old white men, a bit like myself now,” but also self-aware: “I consciously moved away from fundamental mathematics after my PhD.” As a leader, his main goal is to serve others. “You don’t shake hands with an institute, but with the people who work there. First and foremost I want to look at what everybody needs.” Bartel Van de Walle has been director of UNU-MERIT since September 2020.
Starting a new job during the corona crisis really makes you think, he says as we begin the interview. “In an academic career spanning 20 years, you’ve acquired quite a few skills that you think you can use in a new job like this. But that was all in an offline setting, in person; at meetings, workshops, seminars. Suddenly all that’s of no use. There’s nothing more informative in a new job than a chat at the coffee machine.”
Astronomy
It was clear to him from a young age that he would pursue an academic career—the first in his family to do so. During his studies in maths and computer science in Ghent, there was ample opportunity for “self-development,” he grins. “I could study hard when it was needed, but I also had a lot of time for other things.” His favourite side activity: the astronomy club that he founded. He also wrote his master’s thesis on astronomy. “It’s kind of a missed calling, or maybe a childhood trauma,” he laughs. “I wanted to study astronomy in Amsterdam, but I was 17, and my parents thought that was too far away from Bruges.”
Beauty
After graduating from Ghent, he quickly found a PhD position at SCK•CEN, the renowned nuclear research centre in Mol, Belgium. He saw the university as a place where people could think critically. “I always dreaded ending up in a company where I’d be one of many having to do this or that to improve the business. For the same reason, I didn’t want to join the army. Instead I opted for civilian service: I’d rather think for myself.” He obtained his PhD among an inspiring group of mathematicians. “They were brilliant; I learnt so much there.” His dissertation focused on choices that are not binary (a or b; “right or wrong”), but vague or fuzzy (“better or worse”), which he expressed in mathematical language. “The beauty of mathematics can still move me. Formulating something elegantly and seeing that it’s right!”
Bartel Van de Walle is director of the United Nations University–Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology (UNU-MERIT). He is also UM professor of Policy Analysis for Global Challenges. After his PhD in mathematics in Ghent, he worked in New Jersey, Boston, Tilburg, Delft and elsewhere. UM’s Maastricht Graduate School of Governance (MGSoG) is part of UNU-MERIT.
Turning point: 9/11
He was still keen to go abroad, and in 2000 he moved to the New Jersey Institute of Technology in the US, where he had previously spent 10 months working with a grant. His then wife and two young children joined him. The research revolved around group decisions and was relatively theoretical in nature. After the attacks on the Twin Towers, Van de Walle realised he “wanted to do something in the real world.” “Maths is not the real world, no,” he laughs. “It’s different. In maths you make a lot of abstractions: you build your model on the basis of assumptions that are often very fundamental. Practice is always much more complex.”
He began studying how people make decisions under pressure. Why were the police officers in the collapsing Twin Towers warned to evacuate on time, while the firefighters were not, resulting in many casualties? “I investigated what went wrong in terms of communication. That shows you where mistakes were made, but I think it’s important to emphasise that human error often occurs when there’s something wrong with the system. Sometimes it’s too easy to blame a person. I believe in analysing the system and finding the weaknesses that give rise to mistakes.”
Return to Europe
Another lesson he learnt in the US: “to think big and reach for the stars.” “With the ‘pursuit of happiness’ inscribed in the constitution, people more readily dare to dream and to follow those dreams. If something is a good idea, Americans focus on how to make it happen—not all the things that could go wrong.” Still, the family was keen to return to Europe, especially when the mood shifted after 9/11. “I had the choice between Ghent or Tilburg. I already knew Ghent, so Tilburg it was.”
His research developed in the direction of humanitarian aid. How can the available information be put to more effective use? “I also did fieldwork in places like the Congo and the Gaza Strip. I slept in very basic places, flew in small, rickety planes. A wonderful period, which was over before I knew it.”
Best of both worlds
He had been a professor in Delft for five years, heading the Department of Multi-Actor Systems with some 130 employees, when he learnt of the vacancy at UNU-MERIT in Maastricht. His main consideration was the fact that it involved becoming a UN diplomat. “It means I’ve officially left the academic world. I still have an honorary appointment at UM, but doing my own research will be a challenge. I’ve made my peace with that, I no longer have to land big publications for myself personally. In this position I can really make a difference and contribute to the UN agenda. I think it’s the best of both worlds. I want to help create the best conditions for our academics, with recognition of all types of activities, from teaching and impact to publications.”
He is very concerned about the developments in the academic world in recent decades. “The term ‘excellence’ is very limited these days. What’s excellent about a Nature publication that changes nothing in the real world? We’re driving ourselves crazy, not least with the competition for research funding. It’s at the expense of research time, at the expense of those academics who run into a wall, and at the expense of free research that doesn’t yet have a practical application. Fortunately, it’s increasingly up for debate.”
Climbing the academic ladder
If he had to start his academic career over—like his eldest son, who recently started his PhD—he is unsure whether he would make the same choice. “I don’t envy young people in academia, with the hyper-competitive system of applying for grants at the same time as starting a family. In hindsight, I sacrificed a lot for my career. I missed a lot of my first three children’s younger years. I’m trying more consciously to make time for my youngest, who’s now four.”
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