But art is also necessary as it gives unique opportunities to reflect on ourselves.
GUJournal SANNE KOFOD OLSEN PAGE 8
INDEPENDENT JOURNAL FOR THE STAFF AT THE UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG #3 SUMMER 2018
THE AGEING PUZZLE MARIJA CVIJOVIC LOOKS FOR THE ANSWER IN OUR CELLS
NEWS
Increased funding better than competition NEWS
Title inflation REPORT
The new sustainable Africa
VICE-CHANCELLOR Almedalen needs the University FOR THE PAST several years, I have
been actively involved in Almedalen Week, and I am becoming more and more confident that our presence there is more important than ever. The University’s contribution facilitates the dissemination of information to an interested public, contributes with factual background and research data in the political debate, and the valuable contacts that occurs with all of this. As a university, a great deal of trust has been placed in us. I recognise that Almedalen has become something entirely different from when Olof Palme stood on his flatbed truck fleet for the first time 50 years ago. However, irrespective of how one views this today, it is a unique arena for community debate, the exchange of knowledge and a venue for interaction. Without the slightest hesitation, I want representatives of the University of Gothenburg to participate in the debate. There is a great deal of approval and support from various parts of the University in this year’s programme. We choose to
participate in Almedalen to increase the visibility of the University’s role in society and to show that the University takes its social responsibilities seriously. That is also the overall theme this year for the seminars that GU has decided to jointly host in the Västsvenska arena. We have chosen to participate in Almedalen to raise our research profile, which can contribute to new perspectives, approaches and solutions. This is entirely in line with our basic mission, to interact and work together with the community surrounding us. Almedalen is an excellent arena for reaching out with communication concerning our research. WE CHOOSE TO participate in
Almedalen in order to discuss pressing issues, and to influence opinion and decisions. Politicians, elected representatives and decisionmakers depend upon our knowledge and expertise in order to formulate well-grounded decisions. This is not always an easy role for us. As an institution of higher education, we must also be there to ensure that “alternative facts” or groupings on the extreme sides do not stand unchallenged.
We choose to participate in Almedalen Week because it is a vitally important venue place for formal and informal conversations. At Almedalen, we meet our colleagues from other universities. We receive the opportunity to monitor and learn about what is going on the world outside of our University, participate in an exchange of knowledge and to improve our skills. I AM CONVINCED that Almedalen would fall flat without representatives from the University, without prominent scientists and academic researchers, and without interesting, inventive seminars with scientific weight. That the University of Gothenburg will be there in Almedalen is a given. We make Almedalen better. Soon the summer break begins for most of us, and everyone needs time off to unwind and take advantage of being free from daily work tasks. I wish everyone a lovely summer!
EVA WIBERG
Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
MASTHEAD IN THIS ISSUE of GU Journal, among other interesting topics, we write about the new investigation: The best teacher – to become a Professor. Olle Häggbom is an external investigator, and has produced fully entirely independent report concerning the impact of the promotion reform at the University of Gothenburg, where a very sharp increase in the number of persons being promoted to a professorship has occurred. It has become somewhat the exception that new open positions
2 GUJOURNAL SUMMER 2108
Time for new deans
are publically announced. According to Olle Häggbom, this risks leading to a dilution of the title “professor,” which is in sharp divergence with the principle that all positions should be publically announced and applied for in a competitive process. The result is reduced renewal, due to that many at the level of professor are hired internally.
BUT IT IS, as we well know, not only so at GU, but also throuighout Sweden. If there is a problem or not depends upon how one sees
it. For the individual academic, if one meets the requirements that have been established, it is an selfevident right to have the opportunity to be subjected to a review and be considerd for a professorship. However from a university or Faculty perspective, the “right” to promotion leads to a rapidly increasing number of new professors, which in turn raises some concern. The editors would like to wish everyone a great summer! THE EDITORS
16
The sustainable development of Ethiopia.
Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
CONTENTS NEWS 04–12
04. Core funding better than competition. 05. Higher rating for GU. 06. Inflation of titles. 07. Difficult to recruit the best. 08. ”More art in the academia,” says Senne Kofod Olsen. 10. ”Research needs more funding.
PROFILE 12–15
12. Marija Cvijovic fights disease with mathemathics.
FOCUS 16–21
16. A greener future for Ethiopia. 21. Competens for the whole world.
ACADEMIC CEREMONIES 22–29
22. Inauguration of New Professors 2018. 26. Graduation
THE MOMENT 30
SUMMER 2018 GUJOURNAL
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NEWS
Core funding better than competition Everyone presumes that increased competition for research funds is fundamentally good and leads to better results. However, increased core funding provides more value for money, shows a new study that Ulf Sandström, expert in the field of research policy, has recently completed. “SWEDEN HAS, as seen from an international perspective, a high proportion of research funding (approx. 60 percent) which is being sought in competition by academic researchers at universities and other institutions of higher education. If instead, a large proportion of these financial resources had gone directly to institutions of higher education via more substantial core grants, the chance of outstanding research results would have risen sharply,” says Ulf Sandström. He is an academic researcher at KTH and former visiting professor at GU, who has examined 18 national research systems, and the relationship between financial resources and final results. What he found out is contrary to what is commonly presumed. “OUR ANALYSIS challenges the
prevailing view that competition and strong university leaders make researchers more effective and more productive. Representatives for research policy have an excessive and exaggerated belief in project funding. Nothing we found in our study suggests that increased competition leads to researchers being motivated by or showing a better performance.” “What happens instead, is that competition draws people towards the mainstream, to safe cards and
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projects within well-established programmes: one dares not go after the whole hog and try out new hypotheses, for fear of being denied funding.” THE ACADEMIC researchers have studied how the influx of money in various different systems have affec ted the production of often-cited articles in research publications. Countries with a high proportion of external funding, such as Sweden, Finland and Great Britain, show poorer results than expected. On the other hand, countries with relatively a high proportion of core funding, such as the Netherlands and Denmark, generate more research of the highest quality. “Increased external financing does not provide as much a return as one can imagine. Dutch academics are the most effective of all.” Another result is that countries with some form of evaluation system generally perform better than where there is no such evaluation system. “It doesn’t make any difference which system one has, the effect remains the same, regardless of whether it is linked to rewards or punishments,” concludes Ulf Sandström. Autonomy and academic freedom have also been examined in the report, from different perspectives. “THIS IS SOMETHING that is very
difficult to measure, but we see that autonomy is negatively correlated with efficiency. The more power is concentrated on the university’s leadership, the lower the return on invested funds.” In pace with that institutions of higher education have transitioned
Our analysis challenges the prevailing view that competition and strong university leaders make researchers more effective. ULF SANDSTRÖM
to a pure top-down management system and financial autonomy and power has been concentrated in a few, and if one as a researcher feels that they are rigidly governed by the management, it’s no wonder that many lose motivation and desire. As a consequence, Sweden is one of several countries being deprived of high-quality research due to inefficient usage of financial resources. Ulf Sandström’s advice to politicians and decision makers is to increase core funding. “A radical change-over is required. The public-policy makers must tackle the problem at its very core. The Cabinet in the present government say they want to, but dare not confront the issue, because doing so would challenge the strong position of the Swedish Research Council. The current Swedish Government’s research policy leads to even greater undermining of core resources.” Text and photo: ALLAN ERIKSSON
Facts The study by Ulf Sandström and Peter van den Besselaar is based i.a. on research and development costs according to OECD statistics and data related to core funding from 18 countries in 2000–2009. The statistics for publication refer to 2002–2011. The “Fun ding evaluation, and the per formance of national resear ch system” study has been published in the Journal of In formatics (2018). In previous studies, Ulf Sandström together with Agnes Wold, have shown that researchers will have a grea
terchance to make a break through, the more scholar ly/scientific articles they publish. In addition, it was shown in an analysis based on articles published by a total of 48,000 academic re searchers, that women have a poorer chance to make a breakthrough in their rese arch. The conclusion is that women are in an unfavourable position in comparison with men in the existing funding system and in general risk falling into a vicious circle.
NEWS
Getting just a little bit better GU receives three out of five stars in Stint’s annual internationalisation index. This is the same overall rating as the university has received in previous years. Yet GU has advanced its positions in two areas: international leadership and English-language education.
”Competition draws people towards the mainstream; one dares not go after the whole hog,” says Ulf Sandström.
“THE UNIVERSITY of Gothenburg actually has more stars in two dimensions, but overall, that was not enough to push up its comprehensive ranking to four stars,” says Stint’s Program Director Hans Pohl. Stint has produced an index to measure the degree of internationalisation of Swedish higher education institutions (28 were selected for the poll). It describes six key aspects of the internationalisation of research, training, and staff and management. Most of the changes have taken place in the index’s most heavily weighted indicator, which is international co-authorship. AS A WHOLE, this year’s index
indicates slightly positive development. Eight universities
were awarded higher grades, while four received lower ones. The Stockholm School of Economics and the technology universities Chalmers and KTH retained their places at the top of the rankings; with five out of five stars, they are rated as Sweden’s most international universities. THE UNIVERSITY of Gothenburg lags behind in several areas. Only 21 percent of its international students are PhD candidates, and just 28 percent of its staff has foreign academic experience. On the other hand, GU received four out of five stars for its international research. But Pohl also offered more encouraging news. If the current trend continues GU’s rating will climb to four stars within a few years’ time. “HOWEVER, TO DO so the
university will need to improve either its student mobility or its education in a language other than Swedish – and judging by the years for which Stint currently possesses data, changes to these indicators usually occur relatively slowly.”
ALLAN ERIKSSON SUMMER 2018 GUJOURNAL
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NEWS
MAJOR INTERNATIONAL univer-
sities take pride in recruiting the best. There is a tough and very thorough screening before an internal candidate can obtain a position as a professor. However, the University of Gothenburg’s professors are primarily promoted from within; 71 percent if the Sahlgrenska Academy is excluded. The same applies to the universities in Stockholm, Uppsala and Malmö. “On the other hand, Lund University promotes someone only if it is in the best interest of the university. In practice however, this prerequisite does not really seem to make a difference; everyone who has sought a promotion to Professor has received it until recently. And despite the fact that Karolinska Institutet has completely taken away the right to be promoted, it is still recruiting from within its own institution,” notes Olle Häggbom, author of the investigation The Foremost Teacher – To become a Professor.” One reason why the lecturers who seek to be promoted usually also obtain it may be psychological, according to Olle Häggbom.
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“Bo Rothstein has pointed out that with a public announcement of a vacancy, the applicants are ranked. In a promotion where an external expert is involved, it is more difficult to come to the conclusion that the applicant is not good enough, that would of course be to find that that individual doesn’t have the competence required.” IT IS ESSENTIALLY the largest educational institutions that promote professors internally. The smaller institutions do not have the same recruitment base, and are forced to have to look elsewhere for professors. “There are several obvious risks with internal promotion, including reduced mobility and renewal, poorer overall quality, and deficient attainment of gender equality,” according to Olle Häggbom. He adds however, that the right to be assessed for a professorship also has positive consequences. “PROMOTION CAN be motivatio-
nal, and it is also less expensive and simpler for the departments than recruiting from outside, since they do not have to promise favourable terms and conditions, in relation to time allocated for research, doctoral students, equipment, and so on. Furthermore, the person being promoted is often already established and integrated in the activities, belongs to a research group, and actively participates in the teaching.” According to the Swedish Higher Education Act, it is the Vice-Chancellor who makes the final decision regarding the appointment of a professor, whether it involves promotion or recruitment. “However if in practice, the
person who is persistent automatically becomes a professor, regardless of the department’s needs, then the Vice-Chancellor’s decision-making is not particularly strategic. And since many of the financial resources that should be used for strategic recruitment are eaten by those already employed, the universities will find it difficult to recruit the best. There is a real risk that research funders will de facto take over the recruitment of researchers.” THE SOLUTION IS, according to Olle Häggbom, in part to make a thorough review of the qualification requirements and bases for assessment, and then perhaps increase the requirements, and to clarify the professor’s role and work responsibilities. The Vice-Chancellor, who today most often acts as a rubber stamp in the decision-making process, also needs to become involved earlier in the process. Taking the example of Lund University, the right to promotion will likely need to be done away with if
Facts In 1999, the Swedish Higher Edu cation Act was amended so that lecturers obtained the right to be assessed for expertise to become a professorship subject if they ful filled certain specified qualifica tions. The intention was to increa se the number of professors. In conjunction with the Auto nomy Reform (2011), the statute was amended: The institutions of higher education were allowed to decide for themselves on matters concerning promotion, all accor ding to their understanding of their own needs. Four universities retai ned the old right: the Universities in
Via announced vacancy
The University of Gothenburg is becoming the academia in the country that recruits more professors internally than any other university. This means that vacancies for most teaching positions do not need to be publically announced, unlike all other employment positions at the University. Good, or bad? Investigator Olle Häggbom believes that the system needs to be radically changed.
Promoted
Inflation of titles University of Gothenburg Stockholm University Lund University Uppsala University
75 % 48 % 64 % 56 %
25 % 52 % 36 % 44 %
SOCIAL SCIENCES/LAW University of Gothenburg Stockholm University Lund University Uppsala University
78 % 57 % 76 % 57 %
22 % 43 % 24 % 43 %
THE FACULTY OF ARTS
MEDICAL/PHARMACOLOGY
University of Gothenburg 38 % 62 % Stockholm University - Lund University 52 % 48 % Uppsala University 53 % 47 % NATURAL SCIENCES/ TECHNOLOGICAL SCIENCES
University of Gothenburg Stockholm University Lund University Uppsala University
71 % 59 % 73 % 71 %
29 % 41 % 27 % 29 %
Promoted and recruited professors 2016.
the university doesn’t want to have the situation where close to 100 percent obtain their position via promotion. ALLAN ERIKSSON & EVA LUNDGREN
Gothenburg, Stockholm, Uppsala and Malmö. On behalf of the University of Go thenburg, Investigator Olle Hägg bom has written the report The Foremost Teacher – To become a Professor (only in Swedish). The number of professors in the report: 516. Proportion of women: 32 per cent. 59 percent of the professors at the University of Gothenburg have been promoted and 41 per cent have received their position via competitive recruitment pro cess after the vacancy was anno unced. The Sahlgrenska Academy has the lowest share of promoted, 39 percent. The Faculty of Social Sciences has 83 percent. The Fa culty of Education has the highest percentage, 86 percent.
NEWS
Difficult to recruit the best Photo: ALLAN ERIKSSON
Difficult and expensive – that’s the reason why many Faculties prefer to concentrate their focus more on younger, promising researchers, than recruiting seniors researchers who have already achieved scholarly success. However the Sahlgrenska Academy warns that the recruitment system risks becoming too much of a closed system.
“HOWEVER THE initiation of employ-
ment can continue to come from the Departments. The Faculty of Science has a process that works very well: The entire Academic Appointments Board attends the test lectures and interviews, and for each individual case, the Head of Department and one additional person from the Department are there as full members of the Academic Appointments Board.” The only Faculty that wants to remove the right to be promoted, and replace it with an “opportunity for assessment for promotion,” is the Sahlgrenska Academy.
JAN SMITH, Dean at the IT
Faculty, does not share Olle Häggbom’s view concerning the need to change the right of promotion. “A small Faculty can not compete on the international level with salaries for senior researchers. Our strategy instead is to recruit younger individuals, to become an assistant lecturer, for instance. And in order to attract the strongest candidates, it is crucial to be able to offer the possibility to one day become a professor. We are now faced with a huge challenge to bring in new academic researchers and teachers in the field of artificial intelligence. To hire already established academic researchers in the field is an impossibility, partly due to that there are not so many individuals with such expertise, partly because of the extreme situation with salary levels. Therefore, we set our sights on internationally promising young academic researchers who hold great potential.” Elisabet Ahlberg, Dean of the Faculty of Science, also believes that a clear career path is a major advan-
both educational programmes and academic research.” Elisabet Ahlberg also agrees with Olle Häggbom that recruitment should be dealt with at the Faculty level, in order to ensure that the best people are employed and to facilitate the long-term supply of skills within the Faculty.
“IT’S VERY IMPORTANT
Olle Häggbom has studied the road to a professorship.
A small Faculty can not compete on the international level with salaries for senior researchers. JAN SMITH tage in recruiting young academic researchers. “However, as Olle Häggbom points out, it is difficult for an external expert to conclude that an applicant is not worthy of a promotion. Therefore, clear guidelines for the experts are required, and the criteria for promotion must be established so that the University actually hires those who have a good potential to develop the activities of the Faculty,
to ensure that we do appoint those with the greatest expertise,” explains Dean Agneta Holmäng. “Therefore, the Swedish Government’s decision that an associate senior lecturer has the right to be assessed for to a lectureship is a major problem. This, together with the right of promotion for a university lecturer to a professorship, means that we get a closed system with few opportunities for open competition along with difficulties for external recruitment. Instead, we want to see broad announcement applications for open positions at each level in the career path for teachers.” ALLAN ERIKSSON & EVA LUNDGREN SUMMER 2018 GUJOURNAL
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NEWS
Wants art to spread all over GU “Art is necessary,” says Sanne Kofod Olsen, who is still the Rector of the Royal Danish Academy of Art, Schools of Visual Arts in Copenhagen. But soon she will be packing her bags and move to Gothenburg. On 1 September, Sanne Kofod Olsen becomes the new Dean of the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts. Text: EVA LUNDGREN Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
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NEWS SANNE IS AN art historian, has recei-
ved her formal education in Copenhagen, and has devoted her entire adult life to studying, curating, teaching and writing about art. It is contemporary art that interests Sanne Kofod Olsen most. During her time as Museum Director of the Danish Museum of Contemporary Art Roskilde, she has focused on performance and sound art. ”Performance art is exceptionally exciting, as it is a way to allow visual arts, dance, choreography and music to meet and interact. For someone like me, who is mostly devoted to the visual arts, this has been a way of gaining insights into other forms of art, which, of course, will give me even greater possibilities as the Dean of Scandinavia’s broadest artistic Faculty.” At the moment, the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts is also in a strong development phase. In January 2020 two institutions, the Academy Valand and HDK merge. At the same time, work is continuing on Art 2025, which is about gathering together all artistic activities under one roof adjacent to Humanisten at Näckrosparken.
THIS OPPORTUNITY, to be able to
meet and have encounters across different borders, both within and outside the Faculty, is vitally important, comments Sanne Kofod Olsen. “As a Dean, it is not I who can decide that teachers and students will start collaborating in new ways. However, I can create platforms that will facilitate unexpected encounters. The fact that the Faculty also is part of a major university can potentially be taken advantage of and exploited in all kinds of interesting ways. Many forms of art take up themes that focus on science, law or some particular social issue. One example is sustainability, an issue that engage many artists, researchers and students. I see endless possibilities to collaborate with different parts of the University. That education in the arts, which formerly was primary the purview of specialised professional schools, in recent decades has become part
Sanne Kofod Olsen Background: Studied art history at the University of Copenhagen, wrote her Master’s thesis on femi nist body and performance art in the United States. Was the Rector of the Funen Art Academy 2005– 2009, Museum Director of the Mu seum of Contemporary Art, Roskil de 2009–2014, and in 2014 was appointed Rector of the Royal Da nish Academy of Fine Arts, Schools of Visual Arts in Copenhagen, has worked with development of art education, based on student-cen tered learning environments, and
Can an artist do anything he or she wants as long as it does not violate the law? of the university, means a great advance, in the view of Sanne Kofod Olsen. “This has not only made further development within artistic research possible, where the University of Gothenburg is at the forefront, but also contributed to other developments. Still the questions remain, ‘what is artistic research actually?’ and ‘how can it develop in its own right?’ Not everything needs to be theory or strictly follow an academic track; artists must be able to explore various different materials, methods and forms in the manner that most suits their particular circumstances.” Sanne Kofod Olsen also notes that that internationalisation is very important. “THE FACULTY OF Fine, Applied and
Performing Arts is on the forefront here too, with its extent joint collaborations with institutions in other countries, such as the Nordplus higher education programme, where Nordic and Baltic universities cooperate, and the European League of Institutes of the Arts (ELIA). The fact that the Faculty attracts students
has established the research unit Institute for Art, Writing and Re search at the Royal Danish Aca demy of Fine Arts. Is a member of the Danish Arts Council and of the Novo, Nordisk Foundation historical Foundation Grant Committee. On 1 September, Sanne Kofod Olsen will become Dean of the Fa culty of Fine, Applied and Perfor ming Arts. Henric Benesch, Architect and As sistant Professor of Design, will be the new Vice Dean.
and teachers from around the world and arranges concerts, exhibitions and other events is undoubtedly good for the institution. However, it is also very important for the city’s cultural life. Gothenburg needs us, but we also need the Gothenburgers, for without an audience, there is no art” Art is about creating feelings and providing new experiences, Sanne Kofod Olsen points out. “But art is also necessary as it gives unique opportunities to reflect on ourselves, how we relate to others, and how it might be to be someone entirely else.” ART CAN ALSO question, provoke
and challenge boundaries – and thus hurt people. Last year, for example, there was much hullabaloo about a Valand Academy student who wanted to exhibit a sculpture that could, from a certain angle, be perceived as a German swastika. However right before the opening, the student altered the artwork. “Can an artist do anything he or she wants as long as it does not violate the law? Art is also about power and what happens when one uses their capability to express themselves against people who are already in a disadvantageous situation? There are no simple answers that work in all situations, but it is an issue that is important to constantly reflect on, not least for me. Why? Quite simply, because I love art.”s SUMMER 2018 GUJOURNAL
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NEWS
More funds for research required
algorithms and computer science to organisational IT and applied IT relevant to the community.” The Faculty needs sell itself to the students, especially to women who might not be attracted by the purely technical studies, says Dick Stenmark. “WE WOULD LIKE to see a situation
”More students, researchers and teachers. The growth potential of the IT Faculty is huge,” says Dick Stenmark, who will lead the overall activities over the next six years. ON 14 JUNE, Dick Stenmark the
Vice-Chancellor appointed him Dean of the IT Faculty, where for the past six years he has been “warming up” in his role as Vice Dean. He sees a rapidly growing Faculty before him. “We have both research and educational programmes that are very important and socially relevant today. There is a great demand and a significant need for our expertise, which will not decrease, as far as I can see. We have more applicants than places available, a good flowthrough, and our students get jobs. That is why over the long term I would like to see that we get additional responsibilities and an expanded mandate for our educational programmes.”
HOWEVER, THERE ARE also big challenges. To accept more students is one thing. To ensure that the education is of highest quality is another. “If we take in twice as many students and just conduct classroom teaching in large lecture halls, then all we need is to get a bigger room. However since we often work in projects, have group work and seminars, we need additional teaching staff. Right now, we have a somewhat strained situation with instructional staff. We have had some people leave due to retirement and
10 GUJOURNAL SUMMER 2018
although we are actively recruiting to hire new staff, we have not been able to satisfy the needs to increase our staffing levels. Basically we have only maintained the status quo.” THE GENERATIONAL handover has meant that adjunct lecturers, who took on substantial teaching loads, have been replaced with younger lecturers. “We really need new blood, and want to hire teachers who are actively engaged in research within our areas of teaching. It is important that our teaching is linked to the research in some manner. But then we will need to have more funds in the Faculty. It will be all for naught if the national government increases the funding for education, and fails to provide proportional funds for research. This is a huge challenge, but we will solve it in one way or another.” ONE STEP IN that direction, thinks Dick Stenmark, is to be more visible, to be clearer about what the IT Faculty actual does and what contributions it makes. “In Gothenburg, when one thinks of technology, one thinks of Chalmers; however GU also has educational programmes and expertise in IT. We cover the entire range, from
where the proportion of women students increases. We believe that the industry and the field would gain a lot in developing the aspects that women focus on. They see other problems and possibilities than men do, and we need that expertise.” Can you give some examples of that? “No, because I’m a man, I can’t.” He laughs. “I am convinced that this is so, but I do not intend to give any bold examples.” On the research front, the IT Faculty has several strong areas. Dick Stenmark mentions language technology, type theory and digital platforms. He himself has done a lot of research on organisations’ use of social media. Will he have any time for that now?
We have more applicants than places available, a good flowthrough, and our students get jobs. DICK STENMARK
“YES, I TRULY hope so. We have just launched a project where we look at the police’s usage of wearable body cameras. There are a number of studies that done on this, but most of them are statistical surveys about the number of complaints relating to violence against the police, or that reports of violence by police have declined since they started wearing them. Instead, we are doing a qualitative study about how the cameras affect working practices. What does it mean to walk around with a camera on one’s stomach to actually monitor oneself? It’s very interesting,” comments Dick Stenmark. Text: LARS NICKLASON Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
NEWS
Dick Stenmark Age: 56 years old. Resides: In a terraced house in Tuve. Family: Wife and two adult daughters. Hobbies: Uses any extra time he finds to climb over mountains and cliffs. Has just returned from Kalymnos in Greece, and climbed for a week. Two out of three years he conducts mountaineering projects in the Kebnekaise area.
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PROFILE
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FIGHTING DISEASE WITH NUMBERS Text: EVA LUNDGREN Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
Mathematics is everywhere: in the depths of the ocean, in the universe’s galaxies and in every living organism’s cells. “Being a mathematician is therefore a tremendous freedom, you can work with anything,” explains Marija Cvijovic. Herself, she is working with one of the greatest mysteries of existence: why we age and eventually die.
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PROFILE GOTHENBURG IS A ”yeast city,”
explains Marija Cvijovic, Associate Professor of biomathematics, and with this, she is not referring to all the cafés and breweries that have popped in recent years. Instead, she explains, a lot of research here is based on yeast. “Yeast is a fantastic model organism for studying aging. It takes one and a half hours for a yeast cell to divide and produce daughter cells, which in turn divides again. In only a short period of time, there will be a whole lot of cells that we researchers can study.” The first daughter cells are healthy and strong. The mother cell also has a mechanism that maintains and purifies defective proteins. But the older the mother cell becomes, the more difficult it becomes for her to remove the damage and then the poorer the daughter cells become. And errors that accumulate during self-replication can lead to disease. “Interestingly, the cells resulting from an aging mother cell, and thus are less able to remove injuries, still obtain their own daughter cells that are perfectly healthy. Somehow, the cells have purified themselves so that the defects can not be inherited. How this is done is one of many questions that scientists want to find an answer to.”
HOWEVER THE BODY is an extremely complex system, and aging affects all parts of the organism, notes Marija Cvijovic. “That is why mathematical models are needed. If we understand these processes, we may perhaps be able to prevent the serious age-related diseases, such as Alzheimer’s.” The mystery of aging and death has always interested man. “The Epic of Gilgamesh, which is regarded as the earliest work of literature, deals with just that, the search for eternal life. If the researchers are successful in understanding how cells can maintain the capability to purify themselves, this might lead to organisms that never die. However, would a life going on forever feel meaningful, I wonder? My research, though, has a different objective: to contribute to good health as long as
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possible among the elderly. Mathematics and Biology are two disciplines that have interested Marija Cvijovic since her childhood. She was born in Belgrade, now in the Republic of Serbia, but during her childhood part of a disintegrating Yugoslavia. “AS A CHILD, I was always curious, for better or worse. For example during my first ten years of exploration, I managed to break my arm four times. But the same time I loved reading and trudged through books about mathematical problems. My mother worked in a bank and my father was an engineer who developed aircraft engines at a research institute. Whenever my brother or I started talking about something interesting, he picked out on of his thousands of books, so we could seek the answer there.
However, would a life going on forever feel meaningful? The Yugoslavian wars in the 1990s did not affect Marija Cvijovic much, except that new students, who had fled from other parts of the country, often came to her school. “But in the spring of 1999, Belgrade was bombed for three months which caused the entire society to cease functioning. My parents focused on keeping our family together so that my brother and I would be safe. But even if my family did not suffer directly, terrible things of course happened during the war. Perhaps these experiences during my teenage years made me a pretty tolerant person. If there are queues on the motorway or things break at home, I seldom become irritated; as long as nobody gets hurt, I am happy. ONE CONSEQUENCE of the Yugoslav
Wars is that almost all of Marija Cvijovic’s relatives are now spread out all over the world. “I only have my parents left in Belgrade. But it’s really funny when
cousins get together: everyone speaks Serbian, but each in their own way, with a Swedish sentence structure, Italian words thrown in here and there, or with an English accent. And my family celebrates both Swedish and Serbian Christmas, Midsummer and crayfish, all mixed, it’s just exciting with so many traditions.” It was when Marija Cvijovic studied for her undergraduate degree in mathematics at the University of Belgrade, she got the chance to take a course which was actually at the PhD level, conducted by a visiting professor of bioinformatics from the United States. “It was just then, around 2000, when the first genome was already sequenced, that researchers worldwide began to consider what they would do with all that information. There was no education in bioinformatics in Serbia so I, who became very interested in this, began to apply to earn a Master’s degree abroad. I received acceptance letters from universities in the United States, Belgium and Sweden. That I eventually chose Gothenburg was not only because Sweden is a pioneer in the field of bioinformatics, but also because I don’t like hot weather, and therefore felt a Nordic country would best suit me.” AT THE LUNDBERG Laboratory, Marija Cvijovic realised how important it is that theorists work together in collaboration with experimental scientists, since a mathematical calculation does not necessarily correspond with what is happening in reality. After receiving a Master’s degree in 2005, she was invited to continue with doctoral studies at the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin. “My boyfriend, who had just obtained his architectural degree in Belgrade, came to Gothenburg for further studies exactly at the same time I was leaving for Berlin. So things were a bit poorly timed. But after three years, I was back in Gothenburg again, first as a postdoctoral researcher at Chalmers and then as a senior lecturer at the
Marija Cvijovic Works as: Associate Professor of biomathematics. Family: Husband and children ages 6.5 and 4. Resides in: Toltorpsdalen. Age: 40 years old. Latest book: Reads lots of books to the children and for myself. The kids love all of Jan Lööf’s books. The most recent book I read was How I Learned to Understand the World [Hur jag lärde mig förstå världen] by Hans Rosling. Latest movie: Eldprovet, I like French and German cinema. Favourite food: Right now it is very Japanese in our home. Other interests: Freediving.
University of Gothenburg.” Mathematics is usually regarded as the most abstract of subjects. But for Marija Cvijovic, it is important that all the theoretical work is followed up with experiments. “In the beginning, my group was purely theoretical. However, in 2016, the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research (SFF) appointed me to be one of the research leaders for the future, which gave me the opportunity to build up my experimental work as well, something I had wanted to do for a long time. In our efforts to construct dynamic models for the changes that come with aging, we examine both what happens with single cells and how we can simulate half a million cells dividing: with a computer, this
takes only a few hours. That we can follow individual cells, and not only do population studies, which is the usual situation, means that we can also see individual changes.” The research is important, but Marija Cvijovic is also very involved in teaching. “To constantly be surrounded by young scientific researchers and students is among the best part of working at a university; when I get tired of my job, there is always some young enthusiastic person to liven up the atmosphere. However, today’s students have major problems with concentration, compared with previous generations. They are constantly checking their phone every ten minutes, to receive information immediately. In order to increa-
se motivation, I usually ask students who have already passed my course to come and explain to those who are studying now the benefits they had from a special moment; if one understands what the knowledge is good for, it becomes easier to learn.” Marija Cvijovic herself has no need to constantly check her e-mail.
Marija Cvijovic together with PhD-student Linnea Österberg.
“I USUALLY SPEND the entire month of July in Greece with my family, where we love to swim and dive. We don’t have a computer or mobile phone there, and are more or less unreachable. Everyone in our vicinity is aware of this, and and respects it. Then later when I come back to work, I am full of thoughts and new ideas.”s
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FOCUS REPORTAGE
/THE NEW AFRICA
A greener futur
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re for Ethiopia
On March 3-14, 2018, Photographer Johan Wingborg participa ted in a jopurney to East Africa, arranged by Journalistfonden. The pictures in this report is from that journey.
By 2025, Ethiopia will have taken the leap from being one of the world’s poorest countriesto becoming a middle income country. Along with this, the lift must occur without any harmful effects at all for the environment. In order for this unique development to become a reality, knowledge is required. That is what Haileselassie Medhin, alumnus of the Gothenburg School of Business, Economics and Law, hopes to contribute with. .
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FOCUS/THE NEW AFRICA IT WAS IN 2015 that Haileselassie Medhin took the
initiative to launch the Environment and Climate Research Center at the Ethiopian Development Research Institute in Addis Ababa, where he is now director. Researchers in the field of environmental economics work in joint cooperation here, with both domestic and international experts and all kinds of decision makers. The Center has become a key participant in the Ethiopian government’s vision for rapid development, which is also to be environmentally friendly to the furthest extent possible. The Center was established with the help of the School of Business, Economics and Law’s Environment for Development (EfD) network, emphasises Haileselassie Medhin.
“EfD was started by Gunnar Köhlin back in 2007. The network builds up local centres of excellence in the field of environmental economics, and is now present in twelve countries all over the world. I myself came in contact with the centre when I worked at the Ethiopian Development Research Institute, and it was that contact that resulted in me engaging in advanced studies at the University of Gothenburg and eventually earning a PhD in environmental economics. ETHIOPIA IS ONE OF the poorest countries in the world.
Eighty percent of the population live on an archaic agricultural economy, which often suffers from drought. Industrial production is undeveloped.
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But not everything is bleak. On the contrary, Ethiopia has been one of the world’s fastest growing economies since the turn of the millennium, with an annual growth of about 10 per cent, explains Haileselassie Medhin. “TWENTY YEARS AGO, about 45 percent of our population was below the poverty line; today that figure is down to about 29 percent. In addition, the infant mortality rate has rapidly gone down, and more and more young people stay in school longer. The population, currently approximately 100 million residents, is rapidly growing, and is expected to consist of 150 million within 30 years.” It was in 2011 that the Ethiopian government deci-
Haileselassie Medhin Works as: Director of the Environment and Climate Research Centerat the Ethiopian Development R esearch Insti tute in Addis Ababa. Research Fellow at the Department of Economics at the School of Business,Economics and Law, University of Gothenburg. Lives: In Addis Ababa and Gothenburg. Family: Wife and two children.
ded to do something that no other nation had succeeded with: to develop the country into a middle-income country within 15 years’ time and to do so without any environmental impact whatsoever. “By 2030, we will have reduced the emissions of greenhouse gases to 2010 levels, which is the most ambitious climate target in the world. And perhaps it is an advantage that so far, we do not have so much advanced industry: we can make the right decisions from the start and use solar, hydro and wind power for energy, and invest in treatment plants for all emissions.” OTHER MAJOR INVESTMENTS include reforestation and
sustainable transport, reports Haileselassie Medhin. “The government wants to create more opportu-
nities for people to support themselves in new ways. Today the alternative to agricultural work is often lowpaid jobs in the cities and larger towns. The government wants instead to create jobs where people live, in such fields as trade and green industry.” AFTER THE PARIS Agreement on Climate Change in
2015, Ethiopia had high hopes for support from the rich world, for instance through carbon taxes being spent on environmental development in low income countries. However, there have not been many such initiatives, reports Haileselassie Medhin. “Nevertheless, Ethiopia still cooperates at a very high level with other countries: we have a pragmatic app-
We can make the right decisions from the start and use solar, h ydro and wind power for energy,and invest in treatment plants for all emissions.
roach to diplomacy and cooperate on a broad front.” Among the many tasks the Environment and Climate Research Center is working with, is to take advantage of the knowledge that already exists within the country and put it to good use. “An increasing number of university graduates in Ethiopia have, just as I, earned their advanced degrees abroad. But when they come back home, far too often they are not able to use what they have learnt in the best way possible. To utilize our own local scientists, while at the same time working together and learning from experts from other countries, is the Center’s primary mission.” That the Center is independent and does not take
Ethiopia is one of the world’s poorest countries, but also one of the economically fastest growing countries in Africa.
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FOCUS/THE NEW AFRICA
a stand on political, religious or ethnic issues, is of utmost importance, Haileselassie Medhin emphasises. “It is the politicians and public policy makers who make decisions, but in order to do so well, they are dependent upon advice from experts who do not have a hidden agenda.” HAILESELASSIE MEDHIN is often asked if he really be-
lieves that Ethiopia will be able to be developed in an entirely sustainable manner.
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“The answer I always give is that we not only can, but must succeed. We have a mission to serve as a model for Africa; if all the poor countries develop in such an environmentally harmful way as Europe, the US and China have, well then, the whole world will perish. AND THERE IS A psychological value in setting a high goal, he stresses. “If one wants to create enthusiasm for a project, it is not sufficient to want to do something mediocre,
Spreading knowledge all over the world How can we ensure that the university’s environmental and development knowledge reaches decision-makers in developing countries? This is the question that the Environment for Development Initiative (EfD) network has taken on by establishing research centers in a range of developing countries. THE EFD NETWORK was founded in 2007 by
Gunnar Köhlin, Associate Professor of Economics at the School of Business, Economics and Law. In cooperation with Sida, he had been working with environmental economics in many of the lower-income countries since the early 1990s. “But I noticed that there was a gap between the knowledge that is produced and disseminated by universities and the background information that politicians use to make decisions. It was this gap that I wanted to address.” Among other things, Gunnar Köhlin was involved in the PhD program in economics specialising in environmental and natural resources. Many of the program’s students were from developing countries. “The idea was that these students would become advisers to their governments. But this idea proved difficult to implement, because often there was no platform in their homelands on which to base our efforts.” Gunnar Köhlin was active in Ethiopia from 2003–2005. While there, he established the Environmental Economics Policy Forum for Ethiopia, a pioneering project in the field of environmental and climate policy research. IT WAS THIS experience that led him to develop the EfD
or have goals that are several decades into the future; what we need instead is to try to accomplish something that no one else ever has managed, and to do that so fast that people really notice a difference. Ethiopians really do believe that we can become a new, but environmentally friendly, China, and that is the prerequisite for us to do just that. Text: EVA LUNDGREN Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
network, which now exists in twelve countries. Three more nations will soon become members. “We are working with four challenges in the participating developing countries: A lack of capacity (that there are not enough trained environmental economists), analytical deficiency (that the research available is insufficient), a lack of communication, which involves too little contact between researchers and policymakers, and institutional deficiency, the need for a common platform. The network itself is the solution to the last of these issues.” Being pragmatic is important in all development work, emphasises Gunnar Köhlin. “In the worldwide political debate, there is an ongoing struggle between progressive and reactionary forces. In order to spread knowledge and development, it is therefore important to demonstrate the value of openness and transparency. There’s a lot happening in the developing world, and EfD is doing everything it can to support positive development.” More information: http://efdinitiative.org/. SUMMER 2018 GUJOURNAL
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ACADEMIC CEREMONIES
Curiosity Geekin
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/INAUGURATION OF NEW PROFESSORS 2018
and ness
Two minutes before the ceremony began, a charged, anticipatory silence reigned in the grand auditorium of the Gothenburg Concert Hall. But at the stroke of 2 p.m., the year’s newly minted professors marched down the aisle to the tune of the Kronoberg Regiment’s Royal March. Vice-Chancellor Eva Wiberg addressed the professors: “It’s a very special honour to recognise and pay tribute to the hard and painstaking work that I know you have all invested in order to get here today.”
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REPORTAGE ACADEMIC CEREMONIES/
IN HER WELCOME SPEECH, Eva
Wiberg reminded her audience of the responsibility that comes with taking on the role of professor – among other things, the obligation to defend fundamental democratic rights and to safeguard the freedom of research. “As professors, you will be role models. For your students, your colleagues and not least for people outside the university.” Yet Eva Wiberg also reminded the new professors not to neglect the non-academic side of their lives. “Don’t forget to take care of your family and friends. As I like to say, your scientific articles will not come visit you when you get old.” The professorial inauguration was held on international “Geek Pride Day,” a fact that Lina Dahlin, Vice President of the University of Gothenburg Student Unions (GUS), highlighted in her speech.
“IT CANNOT BE DENIED that in the academic world,
achieving the rank of professor requires a certain amount of geekiness. One might call you all science geeks. Be a proud geek!” The 43 new professors in such diverse subjects as pediatric dentistry, conservation, social anthropology, mathematics and musical interpretation were a tes-
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tament to the academic breadth of the University of Gothenburg. In her faculty speech, new Professor of comparative literature Eva Borgström, who researches gender in literature from a historical perspective, spoke about the importance of being curious, asking difficult questions, and refusing to give up. “RESEARCH IS ABOUT finding things out. When you ask new kinds of academic questions, one is not always met with curious interest. One sometimes encounters ill-informed arguments – or even aggressive resistance. But without people who ask these troublesome questions, we would not be the vital and diverse faculty that we actually are today.” Students from the Academy of Music and Drama entertained the audience with the music of Mozart, Alfvén and Ravel, and works from the Academy of Design and Craft’s student exhibition Playing by the Rules were displayed in the foyer of the Concert Hall. These works are also presented in this year’s professorial booklet. Outstanding teachers and teaching award winners were also honoured at the professorial inauguration. Text: ANNIKA KOLDENIUS Photo: JOHAN WINGBORG
INAUGURATION OF NEW PROFESSORS 2018
What does becoming a professor mean to you? Mona Lilja, Pro fessor of peace and development research, who conducts research on various types of resistance. “Becoming a professor entails responsibility. The title carries weight, and as a professor, one should use one’s position to influ ence the public debate and move things in a more democratising or environmentally friendly di rection. As a professor, I can also contribute by developing research programs, networks and the like.”
Lina Dahlin, vice president for GUS, said in her speech that professors are a healing drug for society.
Did you know this about the professorial inauguration? Memento This was the first year that the newly appoin ted professors recei ved a physical memen to of the inauguration ceremony. In what is to become an annu al tradition, each new professor received a special art print crea ted by a student from the Academy of Design and Crafts.
The Swedish word “pedell” (“beadle” in English), which is used to refer to the student marshalls who guard the podium with their staves, has the same etymological origins as the Swedish word for hangman, “bödel.”
The fanfar The fanfare Serenissima, which was played when the Vice-Chan cellor introduced the outstanding teach ers award was compo sed by the Vice-Chan cellor’s sister, Carin B artosch Edström.
Would you like to order your own copy of the booklet from the ceremony? Send an email to: hogtider@gu.se.
Standard and flag The standard is something one carries and a flag is hoisted up a flagpole. The booklet The Professor booklet is produced by the Communication Unit and contains a presen tation of all new pro fessors.
g ö t e b p o r r o g f s e s u s n o i r v s e i r n s s i t t a e l t l a t i o n e n
Niklas Darin, Adjunct Professor of pediatrics, who researches progressive brain diseases in children. “Hopefully, it will give me more opportunities to con duct research in the future. In my research area, there is a great need for increased knowledge regarding diagnosis, monitoring and treatment.”
Eva Borgström, Professor of comparative literature, who researches gender in literature from a historical perspective. “Of course I’m happy. It’s an acknowledgment that I’ve done good research. My position will allow me to do a little more research, but otherwise there won’t be a huge difference.”
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ACADEMIC CEREMONIES/GRADUATION
Relief, joy and exc In a packed concert hall, 245 master students received their diplomas and the audience’s tribute. “Doubtless, you are all true heroes,” explained Professor Roger Schweizer, Head of the Graduate School.
ON JUNE 13, the School of Business, Economics
and Law held its graduation ceremony for the school’s nine master programs at the Gothenburg Concert Hall. Full of expectations, parents, relatives and others, all in all some 1,100 people, filled the salon to the last place. ”You have reached academic success and have every right to be proud”, said Roger Schweizer in his opening speech. He continued by quoting the American literary professor Joseph Campbell, who argued that a hero is a person who leaves safety to investigate the unknown, who is tested and sometimes fails, who does not give up, but develops before finally meeting divinity; well, that is approximately what a student is exposed to during his or her education. ”You need now to return to the ordinary world to integrate your wisdom into your life and figure out how to share it with the rest of the world. And you have an important step left to really qualify as a hero. Respect each other, care about the environment, embrace diversity, stay true to your beliefs and opinions but also be open for new ideas.” Dean Per Cramér pointed out in his speech that “it’s time to kick you out of the nest at Vasagatan 1, to let you fly on your own wings to encounter all the joys and challenges of life outside the university.” The world changes faster than ever, Per Cramér declared. ”New digital technology and artificial intelligence are leading to transformative changes in society. Organizational forms that used to been taken for granted are rapidly becoming redundant. Professional roles change, including the roles you have been educated to. New fundamental social contracts have to be negotiated. All of this open up new windows of opportunity.”
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citement
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ACADEMIC CEREMONIES/GRADUATION
The winners of the Malmsten Award for best theses.
You need now to return to the ordinary world to integrate your wisdom into your life and figure out how to share it with the rest of the world. ➔
PER CRAMÉR ALSO promised that the School will not
abandon its students: “You are alumni from the School of Business, Economics and Law for the rest of your life, and thereby part of an ever expanding network over the globe. Don’t hesitate to use this network.” Then it was time to honor the students that had won The Malmsten Award for best theses. But when Johan Malmsten, chair of the Richard C. Malmsten foundation, entered the scene, he turned to all present students in explaining the importance of the Concert Hall: “This building represents otherness, it is somewhere else and something else, not just physically in relation to where you were yesterday. It is therefore an apt fra-
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me for our transitional ceremony today. This afternoon you become someone else than you used to be.” One of the prized students, Abel Tefera, talked about the unknown territory laying ahead. ”We will enter this territory knowing that we have gained the tools needed to support our society’s progress towards a brighter and more sustainable future.” The ceremony was rounded off with Swedish summer music. In the lobby waited drinks and mingle. Text: LARS NICKLASON Photo: CARINA GRAHN
Dean Per Cramér.
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THE MOMENT WHERE: Tjärnö marine biological laboratory/ Koster Islands. WHO: Crown princess Victoria and Vice-Chancellor Eva Wiberg. When: May 24 2018.
Short desciption: The Crown princess made her tenth walk through Swedish landscapes on the Isles Northand South Koster. The walk started with a seminar on the theme A sea of plastics, arranged by Formas, Stockholm Environment Institute and WWF. Host was Tjärnö marine biological laboratory. Together with a school class the Crown princess and Vice-Chancellor Eva Wiberg cleaned one of the North Koster beaches from plastic waste. Photo: Pelle T Nilsson/Small Media