Secundary education (1997-2003): St. Janscollege Poperinge (Belgium), Latin-Mathematics (8h of Math class per week)
2003: Diploma Secundary education; Laureate

University (2003-2012): Ghent University, Faculty of Bioscience Engineering, training Land and Forest Management, PhD training and PhD

2005: Diploma Candidate Bio-engineering; achieved with Great Distinction (06/07/2005)
2006: Erasmus stay University of Joensuu, Finland
2007: internship Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO, Belgium)
Title: Comparison of autochtonous sessile oak (Quercus petraea L.) versus foreign provenances using comparative provenance experiments. Attendants: Dr. ir. Kristine Vandermijnsbrugge and Prof. Dr. ir. Kris Verheyen
2008: Master’s thesis
Title: Production and quality of plantation-grown limba timber (Terminalia superba Engl. & Diels) from the Luki reserve, Bas-Congo, DRC. Promotors: Prof. Dr. ir. Joris Van Acker and Dr. ir. Hans Beeckman
Prize: nominee Prize of the Belgian Development Cooperation 2010
2008: Diploma Master Bioscience engineering, Land and Forest Management, achieved with Great Distinction (04/07/2008)
2008: Diploma Bioscience engineering, Land and Forest Management, achieved with Great Distinction (04/07/2008)
Promotors: Prof. Dr. ir. Joris Van Acker en Dr. ir. Hans Beeckman
2009 : France, Lyon (CNRS): Summer School of Calorimetry (July 5th-10th 2009)
2012: PhD Diploma (January 2013)
2012: Diploma ‘Doctoral Schools of Bio-Engineering’ (January 2013)
2013: PhD dissertation (January 2013) (BOF-scholarship UGent)
Title: Ancient charcoal as a natural archive for vegetation and disturbance history in the Mayumbe, Democratic Republic of Congo

PhD (2008-2012): Ghent University, Belgium (BOF-scholarship)

Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2013-2015): Leeds University, UK
project : Tropical Forests in the Changing Earth System (T-FORCES, ERC-funded)

Postdoctoral Research Fellow (2015-2018): Royal Museum for Central Africa, Belgium,
project : Genetic and paleoecological signatures of African rainforest dynamics: pre-adapted to change? (AFRIFORD, Belspo-funded)

nominee Prize of the Belgian Development Cooperation 2010

HUBAU, W. (2008). Morphology and growth periodicity of plantation grown limba trees (Terminalia superba Engl. & Diels). 2nd Luki symposium. Royal Museum for Central Africa. 11-12 December 2008, Brussels, Belgium.

HUBAU, W., LIVINGSTONE SMITH, A., CORNELISSEN, E. & EBOSSO, O. (2011). Boyekoli Ebale Congo 2010. Archaeology & Archaeobotany. Congo Network Workshop. Royal Museum for Central Africa. 3 June 2011, Brussels, Belgium.

HUBAU, W. (2011). Combined palaeobotanical and archaeological reconstructions of vegetation and cultural history of the Congo basin. Young Researchers Days. Université Libre de Bruxelles. 20-21 January 2011, Brussels, Belgium.

HUBAU, W., VAN DEN BULCKE, J., VAN ACKER, J. & BEECKMAN, H. (2012). Past and current forest fragmentation in the Democratic Republic of Congo: exploring ancient charcoal as a natural archive. Islands in Land- and Seascape: the challenges of fragmentation. Conference of the Society for Tropical Ecology. 22-25 February 2012, Erlangen, Germany.

HUBAU, W., MORIN-RIVAT, J., VAN DEN BULCKE, J., VAN ACKER, J. DOUCET, J.-L. & BEECKMAN, H. (2012). Exploring ancient charcoal archives in Central Africa: opportunities and pitfalls of a recently developed identification protocol. Seventh International Workshop for African Archaeobotany. Universität Wien. 2-5 July 2012, Vienna, Austria.


BOURLAND, N., CERISIER, F., LIVINGSTONE SMITH, A., HUBAU, W., BEECKMAN, H., BROSTAUX, Y., FÉTÉKÉ, F., LEJEUNE, P., NTOUDÉ, T. & DOUCET, J.-L. (2012). Could current Pericopsis elata (Fabaceae) patches in southeastern Cameroon be reasonably linked to past anthropogenic activities? Colloque de l’Académie des Sciences: The impact of a major environmental crisis on species, populations and communities: the fragmentation of African forests at the end of the Holocene. International conference. 1-2 march 2012, Paris, France. Poster presentation.

DE RIDDER, M., HUBAU, W., TOIRAMBE, B., DIE, A., ROOBROECK, B., VAN DE VELDE, K., VAN WONTERGHEM, M., VAN ACKER, J. & BEECKMAN, H. (2009). Combating global warming by planting trees? Some case studies from tropical Africa.

PhD dissertation (January 2013) (BOF-scholarship UGent)
Title: Ancient charcoal as a natural archive for vegetation and disturbance history in the Mayumbe, Democratic Republic of Congo

tropical forest ecology,
forest inventory,
quantification of forest carbon stock and carbon fluxes,
climate resilience of tropical forests,

tropical forest history,
analysis of ancient charcoal from forest fire,
taxonomic identification of charcoal through wood anatomy,
palaeoecology, palaeobotany,

estimation of tree and carbon age in tropical forests,
growth-ring analysis (dendrochronology)