WORD FROM THE DIRECTOR EM. PROF. DR. G. WACKENS 

On behalf of all the members of SOPA, it is our privilege to present you with an overview of the activities of our department. Rather than giving lengthy descriptions, we tried to give you an overview of our research team, our main research projects, their findings, the results obtained so far, and the equipment. We also wanted to give you a flavour of the courses we are teaching at the VUB. We therefore would like to take this opportunity to thank all our co-workers and colleagues for their most valuable contributions to the success of our research and teaching.