Ruben Savels joined the Department of Agricultural Economics as an academic assistant in August 2020. He holds a BSc and a MSc Degree in Bioscience Engineering: Agricultural Sciences from Ghent University. Following his interest in the sustainability challenges in the nexus of agriculture, food and the environment, his current research focuses on the development of agroecology in Flanders, Belgium. As an assistant he is involved with the teaching activities of the courses:

• conomics and Management of Natural Resources
• Micro-economic Theory and Farm Management
• Sustainability and Environmental Economics
• Introduction to the Circular Economy, Economics and Management of Natural Resources
• SDG Lab: Environment
• Integrated Sustainable Agriculture

Additionally, he is open to tutoring students for Master’s dissertations. ity), and an affiliated member of the Centre for Sustainable Development (UGent). He holds an MSc in Agricultural Engineering and a MSc and PhD in Social and Cultural Anthropology, all of which obtained at the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium). His teaching and research expertise lies in the fields of Sociology of Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. Teaching courses such as ‘Sociological perspectives on rural development’, ‘Food policy’, ‘Sustainable Food Systems’ or a course on scientific communication, Joost inspires his students to become critical and reflective researchers and professionals. In July 2019, he was elected as President of the European Society for Rural Sociology (ongoing), the leading European organisation for rural sociology, and became an ex officio member of the council of IRSA (International Rural Sociology Association). Building synergies within the research group, as well as with other partners, is part of the strategic orientation of the rural development research group, as we believe that co-creation, synergy and interdisciplinarity are necessary key elements of a state-of-the-art research group.