Rector Magnificus of Utrecht Visits Rhodes
April 13, 2005
By Michaela Baker
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On 15 April, Rhodes will be visited by Professor Willem Hendrik Gispen, the Rector Magnificus of the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands. Professor Gispen will be here to establish links between Rhodes and Utrecht and will be giving a public lecture entitled 'The Neurobiology of Learning and Memory: From Past to Present' in which he discusses the dynamic brain processes whereby we learn and remember.
Before becoming the Rector of Utrecht University, Professor Gispen was Dean of the Medical Faculty. His research interest is neuroscience, with a focus on neuroplasticity. For this work, he has received honorary doctorates from universities in the USA, Italy, Russia and Moldova. He is editor of the European Journal of Pharmacology, and a member of both the Royal Netherlands Foundation for Arts and Sciences and the Academia Europaea. A man of many talents, Professor Gispen has also written and performed in a cabaret about medical professors entitled 'De Smet'.
Professor Gispen's visit is of particular importance to Rhodes, as it brings the university in direct contact with one of the top universities in Europe. Utrecht has a diverse range of faculties and departments and a well-developed network of international partnerships. Rhodes hopes to learn from Utrecht's example in its own internationalisation process. This new partnership also has the advantage of allowing Rhodes to interact with a university in the Continental tradition, a tradition to which we have, as yet, had relatively little exposure.
