An internationally renowned cosmologist, Hertog was a close collaborator of the late Stephen Hawking for many years, and worked as a researcher at the University of California and CERN in Geneva.
Recently he returned to his native Belgium to become a professor at the Institute for Theoretical Physics at KULeuven, where he is also leading a research team that investigates the physical nature of black holes and the big bang. Hertog is also responsible for the Belgian participation in the flagship mission of the European Space Agency (ESA), and over the last years has become a true ambassador of science in his pursuit of the popularization of science.
