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Inside Solvay - October 2016
Nobel Prize 2016
Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmstrom have been awarded the 2016 Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel for their work in contract theory. Their contributions were the genesis of an extensive and novel literature. Contract theory quickly found applications in many fields like finance, organization theory, macroeconomics, international trade, industrial organization and political economy.
Both Prize winners are well known to our university and school, and this Prize holds special meaning for ULB. Oliver Hart was awarded a Honorary Doctorate at our university in 1992 (put forward by the Faculty of Social, Political and Economic Sciences - Solvay Business School, or SOCO). Bengt Holmström was an invited speaker at the 100th anniversary of the creation of the Solvay Business School in 2003. And in June 2011, contract theory was honored again at ULB when ECARES organized an international conference at the Solvay Brussels School in Economics and Management to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Hart's 1986 seminal paper on incomplete contracts.
Vice-Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Didier Reynders delivered the Keynote Lecture at the opening of the 15th academic year of our Executive Program in Professional Real Estate on the 29th of September. Real estate professionals and our 2016/2017 program participants got an insight into Belgium’s international properties portfolio restructuring and optimization. He shared with us how the Foreign Ministry real estate portfolio is managed from Tokyo to Kinshasa and from Vienna to Sao Paulo, using the triple mapping approach.
Does beauty make you (look) smart ?
A recent research performed by Professor Victor Ginsburg investigates the correlation between appearance and perceived intellectual ability, in several sectors.
Discover how ugliness and intelligence might be connected thanks to the use of a unique dataset.
No Chinese Master Plan
Is there a Chinese Master's for accessing Belgian or EU innovation capabilities? Thanks to the recent research conducted by Professor Manuel Hensmans and his colleague G. Liu, it seems that Chinese innovation investment in Belgium - and by extension in Europe - is more driven by prior socialization in a baseline degree of autonomous thinking and responsibility-taking than by a so-called “Chinese Master Plan”.
The Royal Silk Road
This summer, Léopold Wirtz, a MA2 student at SBS-EM, and 2 of his friends decided to take up a challenge: crossing the Silk Road by bike! The 3 adventurers have undertaken an arduous planning process in order to obtain funding and sponsorship to realize this remarkable achievement.
Léopold acquired many skills during his studies at SBS-EM which were useful for his project, including:
team leadership, a global vision of social responsibility, accounting and management, strategy and marketing, rigor and perseverance !
CIP at SBS-EM
Meet Guillaume Cruyt, an MA2 student at SBS-EM. Last year, he undertook a Credited Internship in Mexico where he had the opportunity to work as an analyst for "Farm Direct Foods Latin America” (FDFLA). During this amazing experience, Guillaume learned many professional skills while also putting into practice the theory he learned at SBS-EM. Prof. Martine Georges (SBS-EM), was one of his supervisors and below you can read her short interview about Guillaume and the Credited Internship Program (CIP).
Corporate Network
To thrive, or even survive in today's dynamic world, corporations need to embed a "Culture of Innovation" in their organization; to lift up employee engagement and get everyone "into the game".
Deloitte Belgium and Solvay Brussels School have partnered to grow competencies on tackling this challenge through Research & Knowledge Alliancesmanaged by John Metselaar, Professor of Management Practice in "Leading Innovation".
Alumni Infopoint
On the 17th of October 2016 the fourth Alumni Congress of the Solvay Brussels School was hosted at the Square in Brussels.
This year’s topic was “Business and Society in the Digital Age”. The Congress welcomed several keynote speakers and professors, including Mathias Dewatripont and Pieter Ballon, from SBS-EM.
Our next newsletter will present the key learnings of this alumni event that gathered nearly 1000 participants.
Smile with us !
The Solvay Brussels School is a serious and prestigious school where students acquire advanced skills in economics and business engineering. At the beginning of the academic year they have the option to explore and discover the joys of student ”folklore.”
During several weeks our new “bleu” students will achieve a large variety of ‘intellectual’ challenges. The ultimate objective? Celebrating the foundation of Université libre de Bruxelles by Pierre-Théodore Verhaegen, at the well-known St V, on the 20th of November.