Testimony

My professional background is quite varied: I have had the opportunity to work in the private and public sectors, in large companies and small SMEs, in Belgium and in Africa.

Daphne's job

My professional background is quite varied as I have had the opportunity to work in the private and public sectors, in large companies and small SMEs, in Belgium and in Africa.

Currently, I am a qualified attaché at the Public Service of Wallonia (SPW) in the Department of Nature and Forests, Directorate of Nature and Green Spaces. I work on different aspects such as the approval files for nature reserves, the mapping of green spaces and several calls for projects that aim at greening urban environments.

My work time is about 80% office work and 20% field work.

Before working at SPW, I worked at Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech as an engineer on different projects (valorization of marginal sites, biomass, ecosystem services, etc.) but also as a trainer on the QGIS mapping software.

I was also a drone pilot for a private company to make very high resolution orthophotos in Central Africa.

My work has always been related to geomatics[1] and cartography.

[1] Geomatics is the set of tools and methods for acquiring, representing, analyzing and integrating geographic data (source wikipedia)

Why did you choose to study geomatics?

I wanted to do scientific studies oriented "living " without really knowing what I wanted to do When I saw all the possibilities that were offered to me with bioengineering studies, I didn't hesitate a second

It is as I went along in my studies that I finally decided to do a master's degree in Bioscience engineering in Forest and Nature Management. In addition to my love of nature and forests, I was also attracted by the use of geomatics applied to natural resources , not to mention the possibility of working abroad.

Professional expectations met

I wanted a job that would allow me to travel, discover the world and that would give me the opportunity to work on various projects.

Objectives met 100% 😉 .. I had the opportunity to travel a lot as part of my job and I loved doing it. I've had the chance to visit beautiful places and see wild animals in the wild. I have also worked on a variety of subjects and projects

As I mentioned before, I have already had several jobs during my professional career. It is also thanks to bioscience engineering studies that I learned to be flexible and adapt to different situations.

Memories of student life

I have so many memories of my student life at Gembloux that I could write pages of anecdotes about it. But in summary, I immediately fell in love with the campus and its small communit.

It's a small, human-sized university and you get to know everyone quickly. It is the big family of Gembloux, one of the most beautiful characteristics of the university of Gembloux. We help each other from the moment we arrive at the university until several years after the end of our studie.

In her second life, Daphne is an illustrator.

She is the author of this drawing through which she shares with us her vision
of the Bioscience engineering in Forest and Nature Management and the associated jobs.