diff --git a/php_library/directory_content.php b/php_library/directory_content.php
index 686407cc6d55e1833db569302aa8b3549424e51c..530e94f7247253b6395e8869da342d8415f42633 100644
--- a/php_library/directory_content.php
+++ b/php_library/directory_content.php
@@ -178,7 +178,7 @@ foreach ($scholars as $scholar) {
     if ($scholar['keywords'] != null) {
     // TODO change strategy : add email, check if we want to keep phone
     // if (($scholar['keywords'] != null) || ($scholar['address'] != null) || ($scholar['phone'] != null)) {
-        $content .= '<div class="span3" align="justify">';
+        $content .= '<div class="span3" align="left">';
 
         if ($scholar['keywords'] != null){
                  $content .= '<i class="icon-tags"></i> ' . clean_exp($scholar['keywords']). '.<br/><br/>';
diff --git a/php_library/normalize.php b/php_library/normalize.php
index 308c4b722d5b44c4d10c1b2c0878e215c3d7a05b..ad136609a7f2821ef46ab22fe933af70329dc949 100644
--- a/php_library/normalize.php
+++ b/php_library/normalize.php
@@ -68,4 +68,21 @@ function sanitize_input($value) {
     return $value;
 }
 
+// for html display of concatenated lists
+// to make spaces insides the elements unbreakable
+function split_join_keywords_for_html($str_value) {
+    $arr = explode(',', $str_value);
+    $mod_arr = [];
+
+    foreach ($arr as $kw) {
+        if (strlen(str_replace(' ', '', $kw))) {
+            $mod_kw = str_replace(' ', '&nbsp;', $kw) ;
+            array_push($mod_arr, $mod_kw);
+        }
+
+    }
+
+    return join(', ', $mod_arr);
+}
+
 ?>
diff --git a/print_directory.php b/print_directory.php
index bfd0358dc13832acfafc02e153de19371da98cdf..ef685f2434783252977244b95e077da7d05c989b 100644
--- a/print_directory.php
+++ b/print_directory.php
@@ -316,7 +316,7 @@ foreach ($base->query($sql) as $row) {
     // retrieved from secondary table and GROUP_CONCATenated
     $info['keywords_ids'] = explode(',', $row['keywords_ids']);
     $info['nb_keywords'] = $row['keywords_nb'];
-    $info['keywords'] = $row['keywords_list'];
+    $info['keywords'] = split_join_keywords_for_html($row['keywords_list']);
 
 
     // $info['status'] = $row['status'];
diff --git a/print_scholar_directory.php b/print_scholar_directory.php
index 0006ff7432fdc3916b60c40d42d80d454b357aa8..8a4d55307e0af76c96aec73a6d05412d5b9f111d 100644
--- a/print_scholar_directory.php
+++ b/print_scholar_directory.php
@@ -155,7 +155,7 @@ foreach ($base->query($sql) as $row) {
     // retrieved from secondary table and GROUP_CONCATenated
     $info['keywords_ids'] = explode(',', $row['keywords_ids']);
     $info['nb_keywords'] = $row['keywords_nb'];
-    $info['keywords'] = $row['keywords_list'];
+    $info['keywords'] = split_join_keywords_for_html($row['keywords_list']);
 
     // $info['status'] = $row['status'];
     $info['record_status'] = $row['record_status'];  // TODO use this one