Koen Lefever

I am a voluntary research affiliate to the Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. My main research interests are the use of methods from mathematical logic in philosophy of science and the formal axiomatization of scientific theories, in particular theories in physics (classical mechanics and relativity theories).

My work can be situated in the tradition of the Andréka–Németi School at the the Alfréd Rényi Institute of Mathematics in Budapest, which is inspired by David Hilbert's sixth problem Mathematical Treatment of the Axioms of Physics, by the logical empiricism of the Wiener Kreis, and by Alfred Tarski's initiative Logic, Methodology and Philosophy of Science.

I obtained my Bachelor, Master and Doctor of Philosophy degrees at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. The supervisors of my PhD research were prof. dr. Jean Paul Van Bendegem and dr. Gergely Székely: Academic genealogy

I have been studying, using, designing and programming computers as a hobbyist since 1975. I have worked in the information systems industry as consultant, analyst, programmer, Unix & Linux systems administrator, database administrator (on Sybase ASE, PostgreSQL, Oracle & IBM Informix), instructor, and digital electronics designer. I have used a broad range of programming languages, from low level machine code and assembly language, over imperative languages such as C, Fortran, Python, Basic, Pascal/Modula2 and various batch/scripting languages, to declarative languages such as SQL and Prolog.

From 2010 until 2015, I have been teaching Mathematics, Statistics, Information Systems, History & Philosophy of Science, and History of Western Philosophy at Vesalius College Brussels.

Since 2019, I am managing strategic interdisciplinary marine & oceanographic research programmes at the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office (Belspo).

Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Centre for Logic and Philosophy of Science