Doctor Honoris Causa
of the Józef Piłsudski Academy
of Physical Education in Warsaw
2003
Professor Herman Van Coppenolle
Professor Herman Van Coppenolle was born on 28th February 1941 in Torhout, Belgium. He holds the position of the President of European Society for Adapted Physical Activity. In 1965 he was appointed as professor at the Faculty of Physical Education and Physiotherapy, Catholic University in Leuwen, Belgium. He wrote over 300 papers on various sport issues, the majority of them being devoted to diverse forms of sport and motor activities applied to rehabilitation of the disabled. For many years, he has co-ordinated an educational programme initiated by him in 1991, aimed at graduating M.S. students of adapted physical activity. Twenty-eight European universities participate now in this programme. Since 1965, he heads the University Centre for Psychomotor Therapy in Kortenberg near Brussels. Since the very beginning of his professional activity, he has been closely associated with sports, and in 1967 he was the Belgian champion in 200 m sprint (21’3”). He designed measuring devices for determining effects of various forms of sprint training. He has initiated and co-ordinated many international study programmes related to the “Educational and Social Integration of the Disabled Through Adapted Social Activity” conducted in various European countries. He won two international prizes for pictures on psychomotor therapy applied to rehabilitated patients, and Peace Medal of United nations (Munich, 1996) for the picture “I am not a disabled”, which was distributed in several languages in most European countries. He is also a co-initiator of an international electronic periodical – “European Research Bulletin on Adapted Physical Activity”. In the years 1999-2003, he co-ordinated the Thematic Network Adapted Physical Activity (THENAPA) involving 28 countries. International activities, in which participated also Polish experts from the Academy of Physical Education in Warsaw, led to preparing a European educational programme in that field, distributed on CD-discs. Professor Coppenolle has closely collaborated for several years with the Academy of Physical Education in Warsaw and participated in the jubilee programme on the occasion of 70th anniversary of our Academy. Our doctoral students participate in research projects directed by him at the Catholic University in Leuwen., and graduate students may take part in an international educational programme in Belgium he created.
