© Koen Broos
Dr. Maarten Boudry is a Belgian philosopher of science and thinker on progress who writes and speaks on topics such as climate policy, the pitfalls of the human mind, technological innovation, Artificial Intelligence, ideology and religious fundamentalism, and why people believe in strange things.
Dr. Maarten Boudry is a Belgian philosopher of science and thinker on progress. He writes and speaks on a wide range of topics, including why the world is not going to ruin, how to (and how not to) tackle climate policy, the pitfalls of the human mind, the blessings of economic growth and technological innovation, ideology and religious fundamentalism, the evolution of Artificial Intelligence, and why people believe in strange things.
Boudry is the first holder of the Etienne Vermeersch Chair in Critical Thinking at Ghent University (UGent) and the founder of the video podcast Verboden Terrein (“Forbidden Territory”), which explores dangerous ideas in science.
He is available both for academic lectures on philosophical and scientific subjects and for more accessible, interactive talks in which he makes complex topics understandable for a broad audience. In addition to dozens of publications in scientific journals and numerous opinion pieces and essays in both Dutch and English, Boudry has written six books for a general audience. His most recent book, Why Our Climate Is Not Going to Ruin, was published in 2021 by Prometheus. In it, he explains how we can solve the climate problem by shedding ideological constraints and focusing on solutions that truly work, such as nuclear energy.
"Thanks Susan Marcussen-Geelen for yesterday's Finance for non-financials training. Didn't think someone would be capable of teaching me the basics, but you succeeded! Finishing second (in terms of overall assignment scores) felt like a significant achievement. Nicole Fischer, congrats on taking home the prize!"
“Last year we were honored to have Maarten Boudry as a keynote speaker at our annual QHSE (Quality, Health, Safety & Environment) event. The keynote was very well received. It was an informative and interactive lecture, succeeded by a lively Q&A session. The listeners were engaged and showed much interest in the topic. We received very positive feedback from the participants afterwards.”