Professor Frederic Francis receives the Medal of the Walloon Parliament

Professor Frédéric Francis (Dean of Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech ULiège) received the Medal of the Parliament of Wallonia from the hands of the Vice-President of the Walloon Assembly, Deputy Christophe Collignon.

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his distinction is awarded to any person of particular merit recognized by Parliament. It is within the framework of the implementation of Hexapoda - Insectarium Jean Leclercq in Waremme that Professor Frederic Francis was awarded the prize.

This initiative illustrates the concretization of a project combining the associative sector with the concrete involvement of a non-profit organization of a few passionate naturalists, the university expertise of a scientific discipline of Gembloux Agro-Bio Tech ULiège and local and regional public authorities.

The insectarium was inaugurated in 2010 and, following a recent funding of 1.215 million euros, a new building bringing together the French-speaking Belgian entomological collections (i.e. 4 million naturalised insects). The redeployment of the existing museum space will be completed in 2020.

The medal was awarded on 7 May 2019 to 13 Walloon personalities in the plenary session room of the Walloon Parliament.

Professor Frederic Francis stated on this occasion: "Even if we belong to a small region from a territorial point of view in the European area, we can be efficient, have objectives and implement Walloon know-how. We must claim it and be proud of it to shine nationally and internationally. »