The International Symposium on Frontiers in Microbiology has been de dicated to Prof. P. De Somer, whom I succeeded shortly after his death on 17 June 1985 as Rector of this now more than 560-year old University. When Prof. De Somer became the head of the University he started to remodel it, giving our old Alma Mater a more transparent administrative structure, strengthening its scientific and cultural autonomy, and establishing close links with the most prestigious national and foreign institutions. This made De Somer to one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of rectors in the history of...