Emeritus Professor of Anthropology and Archaeology, Pierre de Maret served also as Rector of Université Libre de Bruxelles. He has been engaged in extensive fieldwork in Africa for over 50 years, as his teaching and research interests have focused on the archaeology of Central Africa, ethnoarchaeology, economic, medical and applied anthropology (AIDS prevention, rainforest conservation, Cultural Heritage Management and museology). He was for 6 years the Director of a large research project of the European Commission on the Future of Rainforest People and more recently, was one of the leaders in an ERC project on the Kongo Kingdom early history.
He is a member of the Belgian Royal Academy as well as Honorary Fellow of the Royal Academy for Overseas Sciences. He holds Honorary Degrees from the Universities of Lubumbashi, Montreal, La Republica (Santiago-Chile), Lyon II, Tubingen and Chisinau, and was Honorary Professor at University College London and visiting Scholar of St. John’s College (Cambridge).

Pierre de Maret was President of the Society of Africanist Archaeologists (USA), of the Scientific Board of the Royal African Museum in Tervuren (Belgium) and of the Academia Belgica in Rome. He has consulted extensively for the European Commission, the Agence de la Francophonie, the United Nations, UNESCO and the World Bank.
Involved in the early stage of the European Higher Education integration process, he has been actively contributing to it ever since. From 2005 until 2009, he was member of the Board of the European University Association (EUA) and is a member of the International Advisory Board for Academic Ranking of World Universities (Shanghai Ranking). Over the years, he has led the assessment of several Higher Education institutions and national systems in various countries.