Post by Theo Notteboom

✅ The start of summer is always a good moment to pause, look back, and think about what comes next. ✅ My academic work has now surpassed 30,000 citations on Google Scholar, with an H-index of 85 (see https://lnkd.in/e2XmGPs3 ). These publications are the product of many years of collaboration with more than 130 co-authors from around the world, colleagues who have not only co-created the research but have also become valued friends. ✅ I am deeply grateful to the colleagues and friends with whom I have co-authored most of my papers: Jean-Paul Rodrigue, Thanos Pallis, Francesco Parola, Giovanni Satta, Peter de Langen, Cesar Ducruet, Pierre Cariou, Hercules Haralambides, Ziaul Haque Munim, Prof Dr Jasmine S.L. Lam, Dong Yang, Paul Tae Woo Lee, Yuzhe Zhao, Zhongzhen Yang, Geraldine Knatz, Ph.D., Wouter Jacobs, Sedat Baştuğ, Ernest Czermański and many others, as well as the teams and PhD students at the universities in Belgium and China with whom I have been affiliated over the years. Their insights, energy and curiosity have been essential. I look forward to continuing to develop meaningful research together with the academic and business communities in the port and maritime fields. 📢 A small disclaimer: Google Scholar citations and other publication-based performance metrics are encouraging, but they only tell part of the story. For me, what matters most is the quality of the research process, the development of new ideas and methods through collaboration, and the conversations that scholarly work sparks within the academic and professional communities. Moreover, academia is not only about producing scholarly publications; it is equally about engaging with students and the wider maritime and port community. That also means contributing to accessible mainstream outlets, sharing and exchanging insights with younger generations, actively participating in conferences and seminars, and taking an active role in ongoing debates that shape the sector. As academics, we actively work each day to ensure we check all these boxes.