Princess Elisabeth of Belgium conducted her second solo engagement just five days after the first, as she opened a 3D printing lab named after her at KU Leuven.
Upon her arrival, on Thursday, 30th June, the Princess was escorted to her seat in the front row for the official inauguration ceremony, during which Prof Van Hooreweder, the head of research, said: “We are particularly honoured by the visit of the Crown Princess and the role she is taking on as a committed ambassador for our new lab and scientific research.”
Her Royal Highness, who was visiting the facility accompanied by the Flemish Minister of Science and Innovation, was then given a tour of the lab and the rest of the facilities in the Engineering Department.
As Prof Van Hooreweder explained, “We also want to use the new lab to get even more young people interested in science and technology. Certainly, in engineering programmes, with the exception of bio-engineering sciences, we notice that female students are often still underrepresented. That is why we are all the more happy that a young woman like Princess Elisabeth is committed to this.”
Before leaving, the Duchess of Brabant was also given a small present as a memento from her visit: a small 3D-printed cylinder with a crown incorporated in the 1384 layers of printing it took to realise it. The symbol is “only visible if you look in the right direction through the porous structure” of the object, according to the university’s website.
As mentioned by the head of the research team, Elisabeth’s presence gave the university hope to involve more young women in the field of sciences, which continues to be lacking in female representation, not just in Belgium, but everywhere in the world.
The choice of university also has a special meaning to the Princess, as her mother, Queen Mathilde, earned her psychology Master’s Degree at UCLouvain, the French-speaking branch of the university – the two split in 1968, with the French branch moving to Wallonia, the French-speaking part of Belgium.
