Group

Our group brings together PhD candidates and postdocs working on energy, from a single burning particle to the energy system of a continent. This page explains why we do what we do, how we work together, and who we are. For the details of what we work on, see Research.

Theory of change · Working policy · AI charter · People

Our theory of change

Everyone in society understands what energy is, how its use affects everything, and how to make its use sustainable.

The prerequisites for this are:

• having the funding to identify and work on the right topics, so we can develop and share knowledge with diverse audiences using the right communication techniques (informing the general public through the press, advising policymakers, connecting with businesses); these audiences must first be clearly identified;
• understanding that not everyone will follow a single path and that we need their input: collaborating with other disciplines (including art) and supporting others in answering their own questions;
• promoting sufficiency as a first step, recognising that technology alone is not the solution, pushing the boundaries of knowledge on the technologies we believe will make a difference up to concrete levels (higher TRLs), proposing possible plans to society, and positioning ourselves in a circular complexity;
• recognising the role of uncertainties, coping with the feeling of a slow transition, and understanding that the transition is a political question: there will be trade-offs with the (re)industrialisation of Europe, the geopolitical balance, and “growth” (broadly defined).

Our working policy

We wrote this policy together, as a group, during our 2025 team building, and we keep revising it.

What this group is and what it means to you

• Our theory of change is the reason we exist.
• We want you to feel at home in a group with a diversity of topics—this is what we are.
• We expect and encourage you to take on tasks outside your thesis (on average 10–20% of your time, unless your contract already foresees them, e.g. as a teaching assistant).

What a PhD thesis means to us

• No need to rush: during your thesis, focus on depth.
• Take the first year to mature your topic.
• Break big objectives down into small steps.
• Follow a paper-oriented process, so that your work targets the most tangible output—the one that leads to a successful thesis.
• We produce open-source frameworks: they should be accessible, well documented and, when possible, linked to a paper.

Interactions among ourselves

• As part of onboarding, every new member creates their own page in our shared knowledge base.
• Ask for help—but “not right now” is a valid answer.
• Maintaining the knowledge base is everyone’s responsibility.
• Every new member has a reference person.

How we organise our work

When.

• A thesis requires dedication and discipline, yet you know when you work best, so there is no fixed schedule (the brain cannot be switched on and off). Set deep-work objectives, stick to them, and focus on results: being busy is not how we measure output.
• Collective work and interactions are best done in person, so we are all in the office during traditional working hours (9–5) on the day of the group meeting and on one other day agreed together (not always the same, shown in the group calendar).
• Work-related contact outside traditional working hours should remain exceptional: schedule your emails so they do not create implicit pressure on others.
• Joint PhD candidates are expected to be involved in both groups.

How.

• We organise deep-work sessions together.
• We disable all notifications (except the phone, for emergencies).
• We interact with MSc students by email only, to set clear boundaries (and we remind them of it).
• English is the default language.

Where. We use flex desks and turn our offices into meeting rooms when needed.

• Offices are common goods and should be treated as such.
• We keep a quiet environment: calls, meetings and informal chats happen elsewhere.
• Naps are completely fine, even though our premises and culture do not make them easy yet.

Hiring. Group members take part in the hiring process. Some positions are not under our direct control (scholarship applications, teaching assistants, …); raising and discussing these exceptions is a fair question we should be comfortable with.

Where responsibilities lie

• Everyone attends group activities (group meetings, team buildings, …).
• Running the group meeting is a collective task.
• We maintain our knowledge base together; it is a recurring point in the group meeting.
• Everyone is trained in the rules for efficient group discussions.
• Professors advise researchers on content and suggest directions.
• Professors train researchers and help them hone their skills.
• Professors remind everyone of these expectations.
• Researchers are in charge of moving their thesis forward (organising meetings when they are stuck, sending reminders for reviews, …).
• Researchers are fully responsible for handling the administrative steps of their thesis completely and on time (contracts, funding management, …).
• Professors are responsible for teaching, but researchers are expected to help whenever it is compatible with their current load and energy.
• Funding research is a shared responsibility of all group members: researchers know when their funding ends and whether action is needed.

Our AI charter

Draft, October 2026 — under discussion within the group.

Generative AI tools can save us time; they can also take away what makes research worth doing. These principles are meant to keep the first without losing the second.

• Enjoy the pleasure of understanding. We keep reading papers ourselves. AI can help us find and sort the literature; it does not read on our behalf, and we never cite a paper we have not read.
• Delegate what is not your voice. Formatting, boilerplate code, translation checks: delegate freely. The research question, the reasoning and the conclusions are yours, and so is the responsibility for every line you sign.
• Take pride in mastering what interests you. A PhD is a training in thinking. Do not delegate the skills you came here to learn.
• Be able to drop the tool with one month’s notice. Keep your skills, data, code and notes in open formats, outside any single tool, so that we can move to another tool—or to none—without losing anything.
• Use it with sufficiency. AI consumes energy and materials. We use it where it brings real value, consistently with our theory of change.

People

Below is everyone who has been part of the group since 2012—PhD candidates, postdocs and researchers, at the VUB, the ULB, UCLouvain and in joint programmes with partner universities. Each of them has shaped what the group is today, and we are proud of them all.

Current members

• Zakarie Bruyr · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Martin Colla · LinkedIn
• Diederik Coppitters · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Zoé Dassesse
• Geoffroy De Muyter
• Nicolas Ghuys · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Mattéo Hauglustaine · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Julia Joveneau · LinkedIn
• Mahdi Kchaou · Scholar
• Arthur Lefebvre · LinkedIn
• Exaucé Onayema · LinkedIn
• Nicolas Parmentier · LinkedIn
• Paolo Thiran · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Robin Thonon · LinkedIn
• Panagiotis Varelas · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Filippo Venturelli · LinkedIn
• Adrian Walsh · LinkedIn
• Yunyun Wang · DIAL

Past members

• Simon Abraham · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Jarl Beckers · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Neill Gustavo Bergamini Gomes · LinkedIn
• Nicolas Bourgeois · LinkedIn
• François Boveroux · LinkedIn
• Pierre Bréquigny · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Baptiste Buxant · LinkedIn
• Séverine Cassiers · LinkedIn
• Luisa Castellanos · LinkedIn
• Mauro Daese · LinkedIn
• Ward De Paepe · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Angelos Gaitanis · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Salvatore Iavarone · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Antoine Laterre · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Charles Lhuillier · LinkedIn
• Junior Lorenzo · Scholar
• Florian Martin · LinkedIn
• João Miranda · LinkedIn
• Marina Montero Carrero · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Aysu Özden · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Pietro Pagani · LinkedIn
• Maxime Pochet · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Biagio Principe · LinkedIn
• Nathan Ricks · LinkedIn
• Xavier Rixhon · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Sara Spanó · LinkedIn
• Steven Tipler · LinkedIn
• Davide Tonelli · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Panagiotis Tsirikoglou · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Stefanie Van Damme · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Line Vanparys · LinkedIn
• Kevin Verleysen · Scholar · LinkedIn
• Azd Zayoud · Scholar · LinkedIn