n o 4n |r s2u|mamperri l22001 122
Capturing life’s smallest parts Physicist Mattias Goksör devotes himself to biology Examination Assembly
The Barometer presents
Prizewinner
Poorly thought through process
How the employees feel
Maria Sundin knows how to reach out
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page 9
page 12
UNIVERSITY OF GOTHENBURG
2
Vice Chancellor
More satisfied employees in spite of uncertainty
A magazine for employees of the Universit y of Gothenburg
Summer 2012 E d i to r - i n C h i e f a n d P u b l i s h e r
so many people participated and so many personal meetings been generated as in the University’s work toward a new organisation, or in the work of developing a new vision and long term strategy for our activities, Vision 2020. In the framework of the latter, over 1 000 people have attended different workshops and seminars. With the ripples that all these meetings should have produced, there are surely many more that the message has reached about what changes are going on at the University of Gothenburg. And for me as Vice-chancellor, it is important that all employees know what is happening in our University. It is a key factor in order for people to enjoy their work but it is also important for our success. It may sound like a cliché, but I am convinced that, with growing global competition and greater pressure to change at all seats of learning, there is an increase in the importance of employees that participate and are involved in our activities – and not least in the importance of our being an attractive workplace. You can read more about the Work Environment Barometer and its results farther on in this issue. As I write this there are only a few weeks left of the term and it is soon time for students to have their summer break – and vacation. Without giving too many details I would still like to remind you of some of the changes that you will meet in the fall. Neve r b e fo r e h ave
Allan Eriksson 031 - 786 10 21 allan.eriksson@gu.se E d i to r a n d V i ce P u b l i s h e r
Eva Lundgren 031 - 786 10 81 eva.lundgren@gu.se P h oto g r a p h y a n d Rep r o d u c t i o n
Johan Wingborg 031 - 786 29 29 johan.wingborg@gu.se G r a p h i c F o r m a n d L ayo u t
Anders Eurén 031 - 786 43 81 anders.euren@gu.se Photo: Julia L andgren
The Work Environment Barometer for 2011 was recently presented. The results both made me happy and surprised. Not only did we have a good response frequency of almost 70 per cent. Even more pleasant news was that the employees of the University of Gothenburg are more satisfied now than they were three years ago when the last Work Environment Barometer was compiled. All together, the numbers also show less stress. This is of course positive but at the same time it is important to note that there are differences between different units. Now the results have to be considered at each individual unit as a part of the work on improving our work environment. It is important to remember that the positive trend that the latest Work Environment Barometer shows is happening at the same time that we have been carrying out extensive change work in the University. This has probably meant some uncertainty and concern for many people. I see the positive results as proof that we have succeeded in creating an openness and involvement in the work for change.
T r a s l at i o n
Janet Westerlund C o n t r i b u t i n g G r a p h i c F o r m a n d L ayo u t
Björn Eriksson Proofreading
Robert Ohlson, Välskrivet i Göteborg address
GU Journal
At the end of the first half of the year the management of the University of Gothenburg will change. The present Pro Vice-chancellor, Lennart Weibull, is retiring and will be replaced by Helena Lindholm Schutz, currently the Dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences. The Head of Administration, P-O Rehnquist, will leave and Jörgen Tholin, now Vicechancellor of Gotland University, will take over. In the future we will have only one instead of two Pro Vice-chancellors as we have now. Neither will we have a Vice-chancellor Council. Instead there will be four Vice Presidents with the areas of responsibility of education, research, quality and cooperation/innovation. As many of you know, the introduction of a new administrative organisation has started and in several areas is also well on its way. Everything will be in place by the end of the year. Then it will also be time to launch the University of Gothenburg’s new vision and long term strategy for the years 2013–2020. There was a final discussion of the vision work in the University’s Board on June 14. The Board will take its decision on September 6. Fi n a lly, I would like to thank all employees and students for the good efforts that have been made during the study year. Enjoy a well-deserved summer leave. Welcome back in the fall when new and exciting times will await us.
Pam Fredman
University of Gothenburg Box 100, 405 30 Gothenburg, Sweden e-post
gu-journalen@gu.se internet
www.gu-journalen.gu.se ISSN
1402-9626 issues
7 issues/year. The next issue will come out on September 19, 2012. De a d l i n e f o r m a n u s c r i p t s
31 August 2012 M at e r i a l
The Journal does not take responsibility for unsolicited material. The editorial office is responsible for unsigned material. Feel free to quote, but give your source. Change of address
Inform the editorial office of the change in writing. C ove r
Mattias Goksör, university lecturer in physics Photograph: Johan Wingborg
Reg.nr: 3750M
Reg.nr: S-000256
Contents
GUJOURNAL 4 | 2012
3
Vice-chancellor
2 Employees are satisfied despite great uncertainty News
4 Examination Assembly’s process unclear and poorly done 5 A little less stress, that is one result from the Work Environment Barometer 6 Mette Sandoff, business administrator, takes a seat in GU’s management with responsibility for education.
profile
8 Mattias Goksör thinks that natural scientists should also dare to release control and formulate their own problems
6
Report
New Assistant Vice-Chancellor
11 Welcome to 66 new professors 12 Prize to astronomer Maria Sundin creates interest among all kinds of students. Five doctors were awarded the team prize
Mette Sandoff wants to mix education programmes in a new way.
8 New collaboration Mattias Goksör is a physicist who studies single cells together with biologists.
11 66 new Professors
12 Prize to star researcher
Health is also politics, explains Gunilla Krantz, Professor of Public Health.
All sorts of students come to Maria Sundin’s courses.
Editorial Office: We wish all our readers a wonderful summer! W e lco m e to o u r summer issue with the theme of our work environment! The Work Environment Barometer that was compiled during the winter is now being presented to the deans and other heads throughout the University. The point of compiling the data is to come to grips with problems and improve the work environment for everyone. But how many heads will present the results to their employees? Hopefully more this time. According to the questionnaire, it was actually only every fourth employee who was told about the results of the previous investigation. Even fewer, only 8 per cent, feel that the Barometer led to
improvements. Can it be that the work environment is already so good that it can’t be further improved? Or are problems simply being swept under the rug? In the last issue of GU Journal, Björn Romback, Head of the School of Public Administration, claimed that the work environment is a question that always has to be on the agenda. If you work continuously with the work environment, it will become better. He thinks that it isn’t any harder than that. A n ot h e r r e s u lt is that concern over the re-organisation and expressing criticism has increased, like the worry over cutbacks in the University’s acti-
vities. That isn’t so strange considering all the changes that are on their way, but for that very reason it’s important to take this worry seriously. Most of all, critical voices have to be allowed to be heard. According to the investigation, 27 per cent think that they will have a poorer position at their workplace if they voice criticism. That’s an unexpectedly high number, especially in light of the fact that our university is known for being open and democratic. In this issue we also present the new head of administration, head of human resources and the vice president for education. We also give a profile of Lennart Weibull, who is
going into retirement after 44 years in the University’s service. He won’t be leaving GU completely, however, but will continue his work with the SOM-institute. Although he isn’t a person who showcases himself, it’s obvious that he’s been very important to the University of Gothenburg for many years. We would like to take the opportunity to thank Lennart for his strong engagement. We also wish all our readers a pleasant summer!
Allan Eriksson & Eva Lundgren
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News
A call for clearer rules The Examination Assembly’s process was poorly thought through, according to top candidates Gunhild Vidén and Helen Lindholm Schulz, who vied for the job as Pro-Vice Chancellor. They also think it’s unacceptable that the result of the vote spread via gossip in the corridors and Twitter. T h e e lec ti o n for Pro-Vice Chancellor went like this: The first time the Examination Assembly met, on March 22, only 41 members were present of a total of 73. Over a half hour, a chairman was appointed, formalities were dealt with and questions noted. It was the intention for the chairman of the steering group, Eva Halvarsson, to present the top candidates, but she was unable to. Instead, Sally Boyd introduced the candidates but only in a short presentation of a couple of sentences. Gunhild Vidén tells us: “When I came at 3:30, no one gave me any information about how the interview would be. It was completely quiet and so I started to present myself and allocate introductory questions. Then the chairman took over and allocated questions. I found out later that a number of questions had been agreed upon in advance, but my impression was that it was confusing and unprofessional.”
is also critical of not having received any information in advance about what was expected at the Examination Assembly. Only a short version of the candidates’ CVs was sent out beforehand. But when Helena Lindholm Schulz climbed up on the podium in room 10, the chairman led the battery of questions from the beginning. “It wasn’t only unclear to us but also for the Examination Assembly, I think. G u n h i ld V i d é n
The ambiguities meant that we were met differently in the interview situations, which is completely against all principles for an interview process,” says Gunhild Vidén. One week later, on March 28, the Examination Assembly gathered again to vote. A total of 57 voted, of which Helena Lindholm Schulz received the clear majority, 41, while Gunhild Vidén got 16. On the same day at 4:00, after the vote, the candidates received the following decision via e-mail from Marianne Öfverström: “The chairman of the recruiting group, Eva Halvarsson, will contact you after 4:00 pm on March 30.” “I interpreted the result as classified until that time,” says Gunhild Vidén. B u t t h e r e s u lt s of the vote were publicly revealed as soon as the vote had been held. One of the student representatives in Götakåren twittered throughout the meeting and the results were out on Twitter after two minutes. Helena Lindholm Schulz also e-mailed head of administration P-O Rehnquist, who answered: “…as far as I know, the votes will be counted right there later in the afternoon and the results of the vote will be made public immediately. It will probably spread quickly so I don’t think that you need to request the results!” Neither did it take long for Helena Lindholm Schulz to be congratulated via e-mail. But Gunhild Vidén knew nothing
before the day after when she happened to meet the Vice-chancellor at a farewell ceremony. “It was just by chance that I found out about the results. On Friday, Eva Halvarsson called as promised.” “It wasn’t good that the rumour about the results came before the formal information. Different information was
Gunhild Vidén
Helena Lindholm Schulz
»I interpreted the result as classified.« gunhild vidén
also given about how the process would go. There should have been a structure and clarity about the role and task of the Examination Assembly,” says Helena Lindholm Schulz. The question is whether the Examination Assembly is obligated to observe silence. In that case, Vidén and Schulz feel that the information about the results must be held secret until the panel has held its meeting. “It has to be made clear from the beginning and it has to be respected.
If the intent had instead been that the results would be made public immediately, a clear directive should have been given in advance about when, where and how the information would be given,” Helena Lindholm Schulz continues. I n h e r n ew ro le as Pro-Vice Chancellor she intends to take the initiative to an evaluation of the spring’s election processes in general. Elections for the new faculty boards have also been discussed. “As a large school, demands should be made that all of this is carried out in a professional way. The Examination Assembly is a temporary construction and it isn’t obvious what their task and mandate actually are. For this reason, the Examination Assembly’s mandate, forms and work process must be clarified, not only for the Assembly but also for the candidates that are interviewed,” she says. One of the members of the Examination Assembly, Professor Kristina Eriksson, agrees that there was very little information. “We weren’t either told why it was just these two candidates that were chosen.” But, unlike the last time, when the Vice-chancellor was elected, she’s glad that this time there were two candidates to choose from. “For me, it was fantastic. It was unfortunate that the last time there was only one Pro-Vice Chancellor candidate. Now there was at least an ounce of democracy,” says Kristin Eriksson, who hopes for greater openness in the future.
Allan Eriksson
There was no hidden agenda The Examination Assembly’s ruling is only advisory. That’s why it was hardly a good thing that the results spread in rumours, which gave the impression that the process had been concluded. It hadn’t. T h i s i s w h at Eva Halvarsson said, who is the external representative in the board and chairman of the recruiting group. “Our work in the recruiting group worked really well; there was a good composition in the group, with Vicechancellor Pam Fredman as a sounding board. We put a lot of effort into developing a competence profile that we weighed against the notifications of interest that we got.” Of a total of six notifications of
interest, three persons were called to an interview, and they were interviewed by the whole recruiting group for one and a half to two hours. The group then chose to present two candidates to the Examination Assembly. “It was absolutely not the case that we preferred one candidate over another. The candidates that we presented to the Examination Assembly were those that we judged had the best conditions for carrying out the task in a good way.” The task of the Examination Assembly is to take a position to the recruiting group’s suggestions, but it is the board that takes the final decision. In theory, the group could have proposed another candidate to the board if the results had been more even.
“We were very keen on not butting into the Examination Assembly’s process. Our task was to perform a professional recruitment from start to finish, where the final candidates are presented to the Examination Assembly. How the Examination Assembly carries out its internal work is completely up to the members.” Several people have complained over a lack of information, that they hadn’t been told as much as they wanted to know. “In principle, they got the information, a brief CV, that we had when we did the interviews. Then there was the possibility of course to ask questions that they wanted to at the time of the interview.” Eva Halvarsson says that there are different ideas about whether the results of
the Examination Assembly’s vote should be public or not. But she thinks that the fact that rumours spread before it was official was unfortunate. “It would be reasonable to keep the results confidential until the decision has been made in the board but I have respect for the wish for openness outweighing that.” Eva Halvarsson again. “There aren’t any special routines for the Examination Assembly’s way of working. But the process should be able to be improved without steering too much. For that reason I welcome work to clarify the process.
Allan Eriksson
Work Environment Barometer 2011
GUJOURNAL 4 | 2012
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Everything okay?
Illustr ation by: Anders Nyberg
A somewhat better work climate and a little less stress. These are some of the results of the 2011 Work Environment Barometer. But, just like earlier, many are worried about unclear management because of external grants and re-organisation. Seve r a l o f t h e results indicate that employees experience a less stressed environment compared with the last measurement. The question “I often feel physically tired after a day of work” fell 10 percentage units, almost as much as the question about psychological fatigue. Still, two of three people think that they often don’t have the time to do as good a job as they would like to. I n m a n y a r e a s there has been a gradual improvement in the experience of the work environment. For example, in the question about what you think about your work place, there were more people who agreed with the statements: “There is openness to new ideas”, “We spur each other to good efforts” and “Disagreement is solved constructively”. “It can be even better. That about 60 per cent think that new ideas spread quickly to others means that there is a potential for development,” says Joseph Schaller, professor of Psychology
and member of the investigation team. But there does seem to be quite a high degree of territorial thinking (54 per cent), power struggle (37 per cent) and mistrust (22 per cent). “It seems to be something that exists in academic organisations. But it doesn’t need to be only negative. Conflicts can be good if they’re handled in a constructive way, although mistrust means an unwillingness to negotiate, which inhibits a positive development.” Co m m o n a d m i n i st r ati o n is highest on the scale for unclear management, with 47 per cent, followed by the Faculty of Natural Sciences. People at the School of Economics are least worried about unclear management. “So many things happen all the time; so that might be one reason why a lot of people worry about unclear management. Not even the head keeps up with everything,” says Joseph Schaller.
Another tendency is that worry about the re-organisation has grown by 10 percentage units since 2002. However, there are large variations between the faculties. The Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts, which is currently carrying out an internal re-organisation, is at the top. Worry has increased by 23 percentage points. Worry has instead decreased by roughly as much at the Humanities Faculty. “Their reorganization is already complete.” Co n ce r n ove r external grants remains on a fairly high level. It is primarily research assistants, post docs and assistant lecturers that are worried, 71 per cent. But researchers (63 per cent) and professors (59 per cent) share this concern. “It isn’t undeserved anxiety. Researchers put a colossal amount of time into writing applications but it still isn’t sure that it will lead to results,” says Joseph Schaller. The investigation also shows that every fifth person is worried about expressing criticism in public contexts. It’s about the same number as earlier. Many at the University have insecure employment conditions.
Joseph Schaller
A total of 28 per cent feel concern about the future. “Considering how many don’t have a permanent position, maybe more people should be nervous. But if you’ve worked for many years in a project that goes well or give instruction in a popular area, maybe you can deal with the pressure.” “So many things happen all the time; so that might be one
»So many things happen all the time; so that might be one reason why a lot of people worry about unclear manage ment. Not even the head keeps up with everything« says joseph Schaller
reason why a lot of people worry about unclear management. Not even the head keeps up with everything,” says Joseph Schaller.
Allan Eriksson & Eva Lundgren
6
News
New assistant vice-chancellor
Elisabeth Ahlberg, Birger Simonson och Ingrid Elam
Three new deans Elisabeth Ahlberg, Birger Simonson and Ingrid Elam will take a seat in the University of Gothenburg’s management – one chemist, one historian, and one expert in comparative literature.
Elisabeth Ahlberg has been head of the Department of Chemistry, been on the University’s Board and now most recently in the steering group for the University’s re-organisation. She’s looking forward to the role as dean of the Faculty of Science that will get some new tasks. “I think that the re-organisation will be very good but we have to let the implementation take time. It’s important to make sure that every level, the common one, the faculty level and the departments, are given exactly the tasks and the resources they need. The Faculty’s task will be more strategic and have a follow-up character, with responsibility for facilitating the daily work at the departments.” One important question for the Faculty of Science is cooperation with Chalmers and another is to create better gender equality. “I’m very positive toward Chalmers. There’s no reason to change our cooperation, which functions well, such as at the Department of Mathematics, but there are other things that may need to be looked at. In terms of equality, the greatest challenge is to change attitudes. Obviously, all employees must feel that they’re treated well.” Another problem is the lack of students. “It’s an international concern that so few young people are interested in the natural sciences. We have to cooperate more with the schools on this.” Birger Simonson has had management responsibilities at two faculties, Humanities and Education, before the Department of Work Science was put together with Sociology. So he found himself at the Faculty of Social Sciences, where he will now be dean. “In other words, I have a little different background, which I think can be good, although it remains to be seen. The fall will of course go to implementing the new organisation. It’s very good that the departments will decide over themselves more, but it was actually the same when I was head of work science too.” The Faculty will focus on quality and strategy issues. But Birger Simonson also thinks that it’s important to continue work on being at the top in terms of activities in society. “It isn’t especially difficult to get the media interested in social sciences. Our questions engage people. The problem is that debates, popular science and similar things take time, and there’s a lack of that among our teachers.” The third dean is Ingrid Elam, expert in comparative literature, critic and author. She’s leaving her position as Assistant Vice-Chancellor at Malmö University to be the head of the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts.
Wants to cross boundaries She’s responsible for the largest and heaviest area. As new Assistant Vice-Chancellor, Mette Sandoff wants to see more crossdisciplinary education programs. “We have a fantastic breadth and want to make the best of it,” she says. Me t t e Sa n d o ff has an impressive view from the large windows of her fancy Malmsten office on the highest floor of the School of Business, Economics and Law. Seagulls are screaming outside but the window is open to get a little cool air in the early summer heat. We sit down in soft, high leather armchairs. She has only a few weeks left before she moves to Vasaparken. But the decision to say yes to the job wasn’t an obvious one. She pondered the question for several weeks. “I needed to think it through carefully, which is necessary before you take on a big management task. I was completely unprepared when I was asked. Honestly, I felt no need to change jobs. I like it very much where I am today. We have a fantastic management group and have done very many things in the past few years. But I was of course honoured. Partly, it’s a challenge to me; each new experience is a lesson and you shouldn’t just hold only on to what you have. And in part, I now get the chance to have an impact on GU as a whole. It also feels important that I can take with me my experience and competence from the School of Economics – it’s been a long time since we had a seat in the highest management.”
started on the new hotel and restaurant economics program in Gothenburg directly after high school. It would actually have been simpler for her to choose the School of Me t t e Sa n d o ff
Economics in Stockholm since her family lived there, but she thought that was a little boring. “I wanted to do something different. The new program sounded a little exciting. It was a program with good resources and I’ve always been interested in service, people and meetings.” She worked afterwards at a five star hotel in Switzerland. About the same time she won a prize for best paper on management, awarded by the Large Hotel Group. She was immediately offered two or three trainee positions but finally chose the one that also meant a permanent job, with the Best Western chain. “That was at the beginning of the 1990s, in the middle of the recession, it was really tough. I started to get interested in management issues and I developed an employment promotion program and got a large grant. The branch was characterised then, although also to a certain extent today, by high personnel turnover, sickness absences and monotonous jobs.” S h e d e s i g n e d a program for how to work with job rotation. When she was going to put what she had learned into practice, crass reality caught up with her. “In business, there is so much focus on the customer and sales that you lose the perspective on the personnel, which is the most important resource,” says Mette Sandoff, who decided that she wanted to work more in the long term in order to make a fundamental change. So, in the fall of 1992, she started her graduate work in business economics with an orientation toward management and personnel issues. She felt that she had come to the right place. Pe r s o n n e l a n d management issues in the hotel branch were a rewarding subject since it was studied very little. The hotel busi-
ness is knowledge about people, but it’s surprising that it’s taken such a long time for the branch to dare to act on that. Mette Sandoff has great experience of teaching. But since the beginning of the 2000s she’s had different management tasks: group manager, study director, deputy head, and in recent years vice dean at the School of Economics with particular responsibility for education questions. During the work with BLUE 11 she evaluated education programs in the arts, which gave her entirely new insight into the possibility of cross-disciplinary programs for the purpose of making them more interesting and relevant from a user perspective. As Assistant Vice-Chancellor for education, you’ll be chairman of the new education board, but what will be your actual mandate?
“It’s too early to say. So far we know what the work and delegation order looks like but, as with all broad descriptions, it’s fluffy. What does it mean to have overall responsibility for education? It’s a preparatory body, and the Vice-chancellor will delegate some issues to it so in that sense the board will have a certain weight. But since all education plans will be threshed through the board, there can’t be too much bureaucracy. My hope is that we will be able to have creative discussions and together agree on things. My task is to see that the discussions are held and make sure that we do what we decide to do.” But is there anything in particular that you would like to change?
“There are many important questions, among them sustainability, which must be clearer in many programs. I’d also like to bridge boundaries between faculties and different educational areas. We have much to gain by
News
Photo: johan wingborg
GUJOURNAL 4 | 2012
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Mette Sandoff Age: 43 Currently: New Assistant ViceChancellor for education issues Background: Associate Professor of business administration, different management work since 2000 (competence group manager, study director, deputy head, head and vice dean) Family: My husband Anders and our three children Carl, 9, Johan, 7, and Sophie, 4 Residence: Örgryte Currently reading: Tillrättalägganden by Jonathan Franzen Interests: Family and friends, tennis, running, telemark skiing, kajaking, novels Surprising talent: Talent is a big word…but I’m a persevering and fairly good telemark skier in Alpine offpiste terrain. Motto: No gap between rhetorics and practice – in other words, put words into action.
Mette Sandoff, new Assistant Vice-Chancellor for education questions, thinks we should use the University’s breadth better and for example mix education programs.
getting more ideas from different areas, mixing different education programs. We’re a large university and we’re going to use that. So it has to do with creating structures for it, for example by having a more uniform design for courses that can be chosen in programs so that you can simply choose a course at another faculty. We can’t be too narrow in our disciplines – we have to dare to take in other programs and perspectives. Bureaucratic hinders can’t be allowed to cause problems.” Another important question at this time is how we can make our education programs even more international.
“We need to define what is meant by internationalisation. Is it that our students travel abroad, that we receive students from other countries or that our knowledge is international? It has to do with greater exchange but also about having more international features in our education programs. We also need to be more aware of cultural crashes when students come here or travel out. It’s different
»We can’t be too narrow in our discipli nes – we have to dare to take in other programs and perspectives.”« in different countries. We have to prepare students for this, not only for living abroad but also for future international work. But there’s still a lot to do among teachers also. You have to be persevering. Working hard with internationalisation will pay off in the long run.” Your own subject, Business Administration, got pretty serious criticism on several points from the Agency for Higher Education. What do you think of that?
“You of course have to take all these evaluations very seriously and see them as warning bells. Naturally you have to correct weaknesses, but at the same time you have to make your own judgements and see what’s been done and what is being done. The Agency’s audits are a very one-sided way to measure quality, a snapshot that doesn’t give an
entirely fair picture. Significant development work is going on in many of the areas that were given the evaluation of weak quality, but that isn’t anything you see. It has to do with taking criticism in the right way. It’s easy to forget that many people work very hard and enthusiastically. It’s the responsibility of the management to put the criticism in the right light so that it isn’t a judgement of individual teachers and researchers. Then you kill the creativity that’s the basis for academic work.” Is there a kind of evaluation fatigue?
“There really is. We live in a time when we’re exposed to more and more evaluations, audits and accreditations. Unfortunately, this is something we have to accept. If we want to be international, there are demands on
some form of quality seal, which in turn leads to a standardised design. No one wants to have exchanges with someone who’s substandard. We have to try to learn to manage evaluations, find good processes that help them not to be too cumbersome. At the same time, we shouldn’t underestimate the learning process in evaluation work.” According to the Work Environment Barometer, a majority of our lecturers and professors think that the demands on students are too low.
“It’s strange that they don’t do something about it if they think so. But students say the same thing. Of course there has to be full time studies. We could fill studies with more contents, in terms of time, but it doesn’t have to mean more teacher time – we can be better at activating students. But the problem is complex and is related to the compensation we get from the Government. We can’t expect teachers to do their work for free.”
Allan Eriksson
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Profile
text Eva Lundgren | Photography Johan Wingborg
Challenging boundaries in physics The allure of interdisciplinary studies is not to understand everything immediately. Because there, the borderlands where no one has been before, you can find something truly interesting. That’s what Mattias Goksör says. He does research in single-cell analysis in a cooperative study that’s almost unique in the world. A l a s e r b e a m is led into a microscope and creates an optic tweezers. With this, individual cells, for example from a blood sample, can be held and manipulated. Using the tweezers together with a microfluidic system, the environment around the cell can be changed in a second. Microfluidic system? This is thin channels, a tenth as thick as a strand of hair, where cells and different solutions flow in a controlled way. The cell’s reactions to an addition or a removal of different agents is pictured via the microscope and analysed. “We cooperate with almost all of the departments at the Faculty of Science and with researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy,” explains Mattias Goksör, university lecturer in physics. “The medics and the biologists want answers to questions that may have to do with ageing, diabetes, cancer, kidney disease or other conditions. We develop techniques that hopefully can help to answer the questions. The different possibilities of the techniques give rise to new questions that lead to further technological developments in a tight cooperative process.” T h e l a s e r t ec h n i q u e itself isn’t new – optical tweezers have been used for about thirty years. Cell analyses have of course also been done for a long time. What is unique is combining optical manipulation and small microfluidic systems with biological and medical experiments in which individual cells are studied. It may seem strange that there is a point in analysing cells one by one. Aren’t all cells from one colony genetically the same? “Yes, but there can anyway be differences that are important, for example when it comes to reactions to medicines. Before, when it was only possible to study large populations with
millions of cells, you could get a mean value for the behaviour of the cells. But if half the population shows result 1 and the other half 0, you get a mean value of 0.5, which isn’t representative of any cell. This is why it can be important to consider the heterogeneity, exactly how each individual cell reacts. Individual variations can for example explain why certain bacteria survive a treatment with antibiotics despite the fact that they haven’t become resistant.” T h e day I v i s it Mattias Goksör’s workroom he’s just come home from the university in Stellenbosch, South Africa, where one of his doctoral students has been during the spring. He doesn’t have much time since the company he recently started, where they study circulating cancer tumour cells by means of singlecell analysis, is being presented at an exhibition in Munich. His telephone rings again and again – interested visitors. The company has also received financing from a couple of risk capital parties, which means that 75 per cent of the budget of 10 million Euro has come in during the company’s first year of business. “I was born and raised in Jönköping and first started to study environmental chemistry. But after only a year I switched to physics and Gothenburg and also got a job as a telescope operator at the Onsala space observatory. Going to lectures during the day and working in a fantastic environment with a group of inspiring researchers during the evening was perfect for me. So my original plan was probably to do a doctorate in astronomy.” Mattias Goksör says that good role models are good for young people’s development. “I myself have had three people who have helped me in particular – my physics teachers in middle school and high school, and Dag Hanstorp at GU who suggested that I do my examination work in an area that I actually hadn’t considered at all: cellular and molecular biology. Together with Thomas Nyström, he put together an interdisciplinary doctoral project on optical manipulation of bacteria. Now he tries to transfer the enthusiasm he met to his doctoral students. “Every doctoral student should be encou-
With the help of an optic tweezers Mattias Goksör can manipulate single cells.
GUJOURNAL 4 | 2012
new field with a different terminology, other methods and an unexpected way to manage results. And of course it can lead to frustrating misunderstandings. But the alluring thing with interdisciplinary studies is exactly that you can’t immediately understand everything.” The primary task of the supervisor is to be a coordinator and a sounding board – and to offer a good surrounding atmosphere,” says Mattias Goksör, who has also taught during the past few years at the University’s tutor course.
»You have to have humour, in both research and education.«
raged to try to find his or her own path. It’s taken for granted in the humanities that you formulate your own problem. It isn’t necessarily so in the natural sciences. But if we dare to let go of our control a little we can stimulate a more independent development and in that way get better ideas. This may mean that doctoral students have to study a
“And you have to have humour, in both research and education.” The students also have to be prepared. Two years ago, Mattias Goksör and a few colleagues wrote an editorial published in Ny Teknik about the need of the natural sciences and mathematics in high school. “There aren’t enough resources that go to these things in Sweden, especially in relation to the goals that have been set by the Government. I lectured one summer at MIT and my impression is that American students are in general more motivated and better prepared than Swedish students.”
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»Every doctoral student should be encouraged to try to find his or her own path.«
W h at d o yo u n ee d to do a good job? That should be the question that the Government asks teachers before deciding how schools should be planned. “In a similar way, during the re-organisation, the Vice-chancellor should have addressed the departments and asked: What can I do for you so that you will be able to work in the best way? As it is now, it seems like administration is the most important thing and only a quarter of student money goes to actual instruction. The rest gets eaten up by all sorts of other things, which means that we’re forced to cut course time so much that we hardly see the students any more. I see that as the greatest threat to students wanting to get into the physics program.”
Mattias Goksör will become the new head of the Department of Physics. Perhaps he’ll be able to do something about these problems? “I think maybe that my possibility to have an impact upwards in the organisation is limited, but I’ll do my best. I’m truly proud of my department, and its quality shows in the RED 10 research evaluation. Interest in natural science programs has been decreasing for a long time, but physics seems to remain on a stable level. Competence here is extremely high; the personnel do a fantastic job despite acute savings plans.” Mattias Goksör has an enormous need to cross boundaries and gets a kick out of learning new things, not just at work. When he did his graduate work in physics, for example, he took the opportunity to also do a Master’s in business administration at the School of Economics with an orientation toward organisation and management. And he has followed his wife Emma’s research project with interest, which has to do with what children should eat to avoid allergies. “Fish. There’s evidence that children who eat fish from the time they’re very little less often have asthma.” O n J u ly 1,
B u t t h e d e s i r e to constantly experience new things also means that he changes leisure time interests about every fourth year. For example, he devoted himself intensively to dogs for many years. “It was after I’d watched the army train
dogs that I got interested. So I took a course and trained dogs for several years together with policemen, army personnel and rescue workers. When I was young I also went to the US to train with the American K9.” He’s also been interested in paragliding and photography. “Hockey is another big interest. There’s a local team here in Gothenburg, but my team is HV71. My sons like the same team: when there’s an important match on TV they get popcorn and get to stay up until they fall asleep in my lap.” When Mattias Goksör moved with his family to a house in Mölnlycke he spent three summers building a pool and sundeck. “I learned a lot from that. But when I’ve mastered something I want to learn more new things.” So what’s Mattias Goksör going to do this summer?
“Actually I’ve been planning to build a carport but now I’m probably instead going to put myself into the new job as head of the Department. Of course I’ll spend time with the family but I also hope to have time for books. I usually have a methodological approach and use the summer to read everything by one and the same author, although most recently I read Metro 2033, a science fiction novel that’s set in Moscow’s subway.” with his salt water aquarium. “Having a reef aquarium is perfect for a researcher who likes experiments. Together with Ted Bergström at BioTed Marine in Kungsbacka I’m trying to develop a euphyllia coral reef that changes colour when the calcium level decreases below a critical limit. That kind of coral reef would make a lot of reef aquarists happy – because a great deal of time goes to keeping an eye on different water values so that the fish and coral stay healthy.” A n d h e ’ ll wo r k
Mattias Goksör
Occupation: University lecturer in physics. Currently: New head of the Department of Physics. Family: Wife Emma, paediatrician and asthma and allergy researcher, two sons, 8 and 3 years, a Labrador, a calico cat. Role models: Middle school teacher Jon Trojefors, high school teacher Olle Östklint, GU researcher Dag Hanstorp, GU educator Claes Alexandersson who gives fantastic supervisor courses. Favourite author: David McCullough, who has written about Harry S. Truman and John Adams. Currently reading: The follow-up Metro 2034 by Dmitrij Gluchovskij and the third part of IQ84 by Haruki Murakami. The next book will be En biografi om forskningsluffaren Rolf Blomberg (A biography of research tramp Rolf Blomberg) by Walter Repo. Favourite music: As an old synth player I have to say Depeche Mode. Most recent film: The New Adventures of Winnie the Pooh. Motto: “These are my principles. If you don’t like them…I have others” (Groucho Marx). Makes him happy: Getting to discuss research and science with my students and doctoral students. Irritates him: I try not to get irritate over “industrial country problems” any more. But injustices are high up on the list.
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text Eva Lundgren | Photography Johan Wingborg
Installation of professors 2012
66 new professors were installed in the concert hall on May 11.
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dbo omer Marie Rå ent to astron w e iz pr . ’s le ng op reni ung pe Ångpannefö ildren and yo written for ch for her books
n May 11 it was time again for the formal ceremony in the concert hall to install new professors. Vice-chancellor Pam Fredman emphasised the importance of the University offering both quality and revivification. “Our professors also have a responsibility for helping coming generations to carry out research and education without there being either political or economic interests,” she continued. Professor of Public Health Gunilla Krantz said that health was also politics, that is, that changes in social and economic systems affect how people feel. “It is my obligation always to have a slum in my consciousness,” explained jurisprudence professor Håkan Gustafsson, whose speech treated both legal history and vulnerable people in Mumbai. And an unsuccessful mobile phone conversation inspired Magnus Ricklund,
Magnus Ricklund’s speech quickly turned into a conversation between two grand pianos where Lars-Göran Dahl was the other pianist.
professor of musical performance, to an improvised concert with Lars-Göran Dahl, who rushed onto the stage. Mathematics didactics expert Bengt Johansson told the audience that the school subject of mathematics is roughly as old as the city of Gothenburg. “But it was first in the 1960s that students were taught probability and statistics. Both religious and political motives were behind the resistance.” During the ceremony, astronomer Marie Rådbo was awarded the Ångpanneförening’s research prize for her efforts to spread knowledge. Students from the Academy of Music and Drama performed music of Lars-Erik Larsson, Guiseppe Verdi and Ruggero Leoncavallo. The ceremony was concluded with a buffet – brie and leek pie, blackened salmon filet and lemon and thyme grilled chicken!
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Prizewinners in education
text Eva Lundgren | Photography Johan Wingborg
She helps us understand the complexity of the universe Venus made a rare passage over the sun on the Swedish National Day. You can read on Maria Sundin’s Facebook page why this is so special. She’s been awarded this year’s educational prize for her ability to explain complicated astronomic contexts. It a ll b eg a n i n 1994 when Maria Sundin took over Curt Roslund’s orientation courses in astronomy. Much has happened since then and the material she uses today is completely her own. “When I made an investigation of my students I found that the courses have an almost exact distribution of sexes. The students are also in all different ages, from 19-year-olds to 85-year-olds.” For some students, Maria Sundin’s courses are the first they’ve taken at the University. But there are also physics students that get inspiration from taking a cross-disciplinary course in astronomy in addition to their ordinary courses. Creating educational programs that people from so varied backgrounds enjoy is a great challenge. “ S i n ce t h e y a r e orientation courses, I have to avoid advanced mathematics and instead explain with words, even if it can sometimes be interesting to show the mathematical expression also. It’s valuable in itself that the courses are a meeting place for people that otherwise wouldn’t have met. But it also creates new interesting approaches to the subject: When I lecture about the art of navigation, there is always some naval officer that can deepen the discussion. And if I talk about an old myth, there may be someone in the room that makes completely different parallels with different cultures than I can. It was a little frightening in the beginning to lecture about art or cultural history, which aren’t at all my subjects. But since I’m very clear about saying that I’m an astrophysicist, I think that the students accept that I can’t answer everything but sometimes have to give an answer later.” Maria Sundin gives a total of eleven orientation courses, two each term. “Maybe it sounds like a lot but I think it’s important to attract people with the thing that gets each one of them interested. A
Maria Sundin is awarded this year’s educational prize for her popular courses in astronomy.
»If the University succeeds in capturing each person’s curiosity, there’s no limit to where it can lead« grandmother that reads science fiction might take the course on interstellar communication while a 19-year-old who’s interested in history wants to know more about the astronomical worldview. They might eventually meet in a conversation about exoplanets that they didn’t even know that they were interested in. If the University succeeds in capturing each person’s curiosity, there’s no limit to where it can lead.” Astronomy is a subject that deals with many different questions: How would you react if it became known that there is in fact intelligent life on other planets? How was it possible for people to know so much about the
stars several thousand years ago? And why should we spend money on Mars probes when there’s so much suffering on earth? “I’m often surprised over how deep the discussions get. Physics can handle certain questions, but when it has to do with a lot of other things we have to look for answers in history, religion, art, biology or geology.” Her Facebook page is a good way for Maria Sundin to give information about changes in schedules. But it’s much more than that. astronomic events, books and articles. But on Facebook I can also come
“ I g i ve ti p s a b o u t
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Photo: johan wingborg
GUJOURNAL 4 | 2012
This year’s team prize in education goes to the team of doctors made up by Linda Fogelstrand, Lars Palmqvist, Maria Thornemo, Stefan Jacobsson and Göran Oleröd.
Maria Sundin Occupation: University lecturer and new pro-head of the Department of Physics. But she’s also often on the radio and in newspaper and other popular science contexts. Currently: Received the year’s education prize for “her way, with metaphors and simple objects, enthusiastically making concrete the most complicate astronomical phenomena. Maria has a unique ability in her instruction to make knowledge live and create curiosity. She puts people in the world of astronomy by giving historical, philosophical, artistic and ethnological perspectives.” Family: Husband, author Peter Ekberg, and two children, 9 and 5 years. Residence: Torslanda. Interests: Beyond her family and work, horses, science fiction, fantasy – also likes Depeche Mode, Bryan Ferry, Dire Straits and Kent.
into contact with the students that I don’t talk to during lectures. The page is completely open too, so even for example middle school and high school students can get into it.” A large number, between 70 and 80 per cent of the students, usually take the written exam that concludes the courses. That’s an unusually high number for an orientation course. One explanation can be that everyone who passes the exam gets a specially designed t-shirt that can’t be bought but has to be gotten by means of deserving it. Students that have passed five or ten exams get extra special shirts. What do the students say?
“Maria’s lectures are magical!” says Kenneth Lind. “After I took the course on ethno-astronomy I was addicted. Now I’ve
taken most of the courses, and I’d never even thought about that earlier.” “Maria’s way of lecturing is unique,” according to Anders Thorslund. “Although she never compromises scientific correctness, she succeeds in explaining very complicated contexts.” So how was the Venus passage? What was so interesting about that?
“That was what made it possible for astronomers in the 1700s to establish the distance from the earth to the sun,” explains Maria Sundin. “But send a thought to poor Guillaume le Gentil who, despite having waited for many years, missed the passage in both 1761 and 1769 because of unrest in India and the Philippines. The next time Venus will pass the sun is in 105 years.”
Prize for a web course Whenever and wherever – students can take the part of the course in clinical chemistry when and where it suits them best. The team of doctors at Sahlgrenska University Hospital is being given the team prize in education for their innovative web-based course. It h a s to d o w it h learning to analyse and understand laboratory results, an important part of the medical education, as well as a relatively difficult part during which medical students go through a great deal over a short period of time in the course in clinical chemistry in internal medicine. “They also have to do these studies at the same time that they’re at different hospitals in the region, maybe in Borås or Uddevalla,” says Associate Professor Lars Palmqvist. “So how do you design a course that everyone can take and that can also be simply integrated in the everyday instruction at the clinic?” “We also know that we soon will have even more students in medicine. So we wanted to find a form of instruction that can work for many students at the same time, in spite of the fact that there isn’t a lot of teacher support,” says resident physician Linda Fogelstrand. The team got their inspiration from the US, where doctors get continued education in so called continuing medical education, courses that are often put on the internet. “But a visit during a GU online day, where we met representatives of the PIL unit and GUL, made us even more interested,” explains Linda Fogelstrand. “We ourselves have no experience of web courses or video editing but we got help in that from PIL.” T h i s pa r t o f t h e course means that students visit a page in GUL where the subject of clinical chemistry is divided into five subcourses. Each part contains videos, references to textbooks and a multiple choice test. “Instruction started in the fall of 2011 and, since there are no similar courses in the medical program, we met some scepticism to begin with,” Lars Palmqvist tells us. “But now the biomedical management is interested in putting more parts of courses on the internet.” The reason why the web course has become a success, among teachers, clinicians and students, is in part because it’s been made very important to listen to everyone’s viewpoints. “We’re new at this with instruction on the web, so there are without doubt improvements that can be made,” says Linda Fogelstrand. Will web courses in fact dominate instruction in the future? “I don’t think so,” says Lars Palmqvist. “Enthusiasm and feedback are best given in personal meetings. But certain basic parts that may need to be repeated again and again – there’s an advantage to putting them in a web course.”