The King and the Queen of The Netherlands visited Luxembourg from 23 to 25 May 2018. On the agenda of the visting programme were also the new Luxembourg Learning Centre and the “Maison du Savoir”.
The Royal couple visited Luxembourg at the invitation of Their Royal Highnesses the Grand Duke and Duchess of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
On Thursday 24 May, the King and the Queen, together with the Grand Duke and Duchess as well as representatives from both governments, came to Belval Campus. The delegation took a walk to the blast furnaces, where representatives from Fonds Belval explained the history and future of Belval.
Then, the delegation visited the Luxembourg Learning Centre construction site – the future University Library – where Vice-rector Romain Martin, together with head of libraries Marie-Pierre Pausch, explained the building’s architecture as well as the University’s concept of digital learning.
Afterwards, the delegation attended a non-public session inside the “Maison du Savoir” on the space resources initiative of the Luxembourgish government and its partners in research, education and business. Together, the royal couples visited several information booths, where – besides representatives from businesses, education and Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) – Vice-rector Tonie Van Dam, Prof. Mahulena Hofmann, holder of the SES Chair in Space, SatCom and Media Law, Prof. Susanne Siebentritt, head of the laboratory for photovoltaics, as well as PhD student Philippe Ludivig and Dr Jose Luis Sanchez Lopez from the University’s Interdisciplinary Centre on Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT) presented their activities related to space research.
The King and Queen were accompanied by Minister of Foreign Affairs Stef Blok. A parallel programme with a focus on the vision of a sustainable and circular economy was led by State Secretary for Infrastructure and Water Management Stientje van Veldhoven.