Lectures by Prof. Van Langenhove

From July 19 to 22, we invited Professor Lieva Van Langenhove of Ghent University in Belgium to deliver a series of lectures for the first International Topics on Fiber Engineering I and II sessions of this academic year. In those sessions, Professor Van Langenhove, who became the program's first female guest instructor, addressed the subject of smart textiles.

Reflecting her interest in advancing the status of women and in industry and history, Professor Van Langenhove also held a number of round-table discussions with students. At the discussion about advancing the status of women, in which only female students participated, she spoke about current conditions at Ghent University based on her experiences as a researcher, wife, and mother. What she had to say on the subject proved to be fairly surprising for the program's students, who learned that improving the status of women and achieving equality for men and women remain distant goals even in Europe, which they had assumed to be many times more advanced in this area than Japan. At a round-table the following day that was open to all students, representatives gave brief presentations on the textile industry in their own countries (Belgium, Japan, China, Indonesia, Thailand, Pakistan, Morocco, Germany, and Vietnam) and then exchanged views on the subject with one another. At the end, a German international student sparked an energetic discussion of energy issues and on what sorts of clean energy could replace nuclear power by observing, "Germany quit using nuclear power but now must purchase electricity from neighboring France due to power shortages."