5 minute read
MARTIN MEGANCK: THE PROFESSOR WHO PRACTICED WHAT HE TAUGHT
Since 1 October 2024, Martin Meganck is professor emeritus. KU Leuven-Ghent engineering students will have to do without him as their Philosophy and Ethics professor. The Faculty of Engineering Technology and by extension the entire university will also not be the same after the farewell of the chemical engineer and moral theologian who stood out for his modesty, erudition and engagement in various ethics and other committees.
Since 1993, Prof Meganck taught Philosophy of Science and Technology in the undergraduate programme and Professional and Business Ethics in the master’s programme. His subjects belong to the so-called ‘social sciences or humanities’, while mathematics, physics, chemistry and all technical subjects are considered ‘exact sciences’. Prof Meganck never agreed with this division. According to him, it is not only artificial but also outdated. “Science and engineering are just as much social realities. Technology is a product of human activity, so human factors inevitably come into play. As technology becomes more pervasive in everyday life, you see people asking more questions than before about its impact and consequences for society, nature and culture.”
Prof Meganck did not dish out the works of Kant or Spinoza to his students. Above all, he knew how to sensitise them to their responsibility as engineers. “That starts with thinking about what you do and its consequences. As reflective practitioners, engineers not only design and make products and processes, they must also be able to justify at any time why they are doing things this way and not another.”
Integrity
Just how seriously Prof Meganck himself did take his responsibilities is shown by the many functions and roles he fulfilled in addition to his teaching duties. All of them are related to interpersonal relations, mediation, prevention and resolution of tensions and conflicts and improving the working climate. Even during the KAHO Sint-Lieven university college period, he was already active as an ombudsman and confidant. When the KU Leuven Association founded its Commission for
Research Integrity, he was invited (with his background in both technology and ethics) to join it as a representative for the university colleges. “There, most disputes are about authorship and plagiarism”, Prof Meganck says. After two four-year terms, he became the Research Integrity Advisor for the Science and Technology Group of KU Leuven, giving individual information or advise on copyright, for example. In this way, many problems could already be solved without being formally submitted to the commission.”
Similarly, Prof Meganck was the ombuds for PhD students of the Faculty of Engineering Technology for a few years, a position that he held until he was elected to serve on the Faculty Assessment Committee. He then found both roles deontologically difficult to combine and resigned as a PhD ombuds.
Ethics
Aa a professor of Philosophy and Ethics, Martin Meganck was also member of KU Leuven’s Social and Societal Ethics Committee for eight years. “This committee is authorised to subject research proposals involving human participants to an ethical-deontological review”, Prof Meganck explains. “It checks whether the integrity, dignity and rights of the people involved in the research are respected. It also looks at how confidential research information and the code of conduct are handled in resource-poor settings. Increasingly, we see that project applications to the EU or the FWO require an opinion from an ethics body.”
From the ethics committee to the Ethical Committee on Dual Use, Military Use and Misuse (EC DMM) seems only a small step, but in terms of content, these are files with more weight and impact. “Dual Use refers to research that has the potentials for military applications”, Prof. Meganck continues. “Misuse refers to projects that have the potential for malevolent, criminal or terrorist abusal. This often involved fields like cryptography or materials research, but also cooperation with countries that do not take human rights too closely. In recent years, more and more dossiers on AI are popping up, usually after an initial screening by KU Leuven Research and Development.”
Diversity
Moreover, Prof Meganck also distinguished himself in councils and committees on education-related matters. On behalf of the faculty, he sat on the Working Group on Irregularities where cases of plagiarism and exam fraud are dealt with. He was also a member of KU Leuven’s Diversity Council, an important advisory organ in the decision-making process regarding one of the university’s key objectives: creating an inclusive community of professors, students, researchers and support staff. During his prolific career, Prof Meganck rarely came to the fore. Nor did he seek the public eye and rarely raised his voice during debates or deliberations. His thoughts were ordered, his words deliberate, his interventions always considerate and soothing. Prof Meganck was a symbol of balance. The German Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant called this “the self-sense of the healthy mind”. For those who know and knew him, Prof Meganck’s example is an invitation to keep reason and humanity, even in an uncertain and at times confused world.
Yves Persoons
