Welcome to the personal website of Dirk Poelman

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  • My family
  • Some of my personal interests
  • Research
  • Services

Interests and projects

While I love my job at the university (well, most of the time), I try to keep some spare time for other activities.

DIY Audio

Since I was about 14 years old, I have been building (with varying succes) audio equipment. In this way, I have been making different types of amplifiers and loudspeakers. In addition, my electric guitar is a perfect excuse for building guitar amplifiers and effects.

Genealogy

The fact that my wife and I have the same family name Poelman was a good occasion to search for a common ancestor, which we indeed found in the year 1702 (Livinus Poelman). In the meantime, my family tree has continuously been expanded, and now includes roughly 3200 people. Two types of information are included: all ancestors of our children Stijn and Nika on the one hand, and all family members with the name Poelman on the other hand. The public database with my research is currently under reconstruction. Please come back later.

Music

Since about 10 years, I am singing in the Sint-Gregorius church choir in my home town Zwijnaarde. At home, I have a Fender Stratocaster electric guitar (midlife crisis?) which I try to play ... without any talent, unfortunately. Thus, I have little hope I can ever play David Gilmour (Pink Floyd) solos in a decent way.

My family

I am married to Hilde since 1987. She is currently working in the Department of Chemical Technology of UGent, where she is responsible for a lot of the analytical work (XRD, XPS, SEM, EXAFS, ...).

Our children are Stijn (°1995) end Nika (°1996). Nika has a bachelor in orthopedagogy and a bachelor in social work, and is currently working in a primary school. Stijn is in his last year of a PhD in photonics engineering at UGent. Obviously, they are simply the best!