Karel Van den Berghe holds a master degree in Geography (Ghent University, 2012) and a master degree in Urbanism and Spatial Planning (Ghent University, 2013). His master thesis won the Belgian yearly student prize for the best student thesis in the field of urbanism. In 2014 he started a PhD at the Ghent University researching the port city interfaces, supervised by professor Luuk Boelens (Ghent University) and Wouter Jacobs (Erasmus University Rotterdam). During his ongoing PhD Karel Van den Berghe won the best young planner prize of the Netherlands and Flanders 2015. Karel Van den Berghe published in several national and international peer reviewed academic journals and contributed to international academic books. In 2015 he wrote an expert text regarding port cities together with professor Wiltox (Ghent University) and professor Kobe Boussauw (Vrije Universiteit Brussel), this to be implemented in the new updated spatial plan of the Flemish Government. Karel presented his PhD results at several international conferences (AESOP, ISOCARP, AAG, …). Finally, Karel Van den Berghe is since 2014 chair of the city advisory board of the city of Diksmuide, Flanders and since 2016 chair of the international organization of planners and urbanists of AESOP Young Academics.