GUJOURNAL
News
Science Faculty takes over IT-departmnets
News
Be prepared for cyber threats!
REPORT
Fluffy texts withChat GPT
From ice age to inflation
Ola Olsson looks for answers far back in history
GU JOURNAL
The GU Journal has a free and independent position, is made according to journalistic principles.
Editor-in-chief: Eva Lundgren
Phone: 031–786 10 81, e-mail: eva.lundgren@gu.se
Editor: Allan Eriksson, e-mail: allan.eriksson@gu.se
Photographer: Johan Wingborg, Phone: 070–595 38 01, e-mail: johan.wingborg@gu.se
Layout: Anders Eurén, Phone: 031–786 43 81, e-mail: anders.euren@gu.se
Address: GU Journal, University of Gothenburg, Box 100, 405 30 Gothenburg , Sweden. E-mail: gu-journalen@gu.se
Internet: gu-journalen.gu.se
ISSN: 1402-9626
News 04–11 04 IT-fakulteten ceases.
Review of centres on its way.
Paus for Summer School.
The university prepares its employees for cyber threats.
Children’s health in focus.
Religion as a political force.
Visit from Ukraine.
Profile 12–15
Diving into the history.
Report 16–19
Saving Ukraine's digital cultural heritage.
Cooperation for global health.
People 20–22 20 Fluffy with Chat GPT.
Deepdiving Ola Olsson
Preparing for cyberattack 12
New minister, new strategies and other autumn news
utumn brings news such as several new members of the university board and a new minister for education. We have been waiting for the former, the latter was more unexpected. A warm welcome to these and a warm welcome to a new academic year!
In June, the university board decided on the strategies that we, at different levels within the university, have worked on together. With these, we can concentrate more power on certain selected areas; it feels very good that we are now concretizing the overall strategies in operational plans for the coming years.
Our overall vision remains the same: A university for the world. Therefore, it is particularly pleasing that we have been given the opportunity to make an interdisciplinary gathering of forces around the area of Global Child and Adolescent Health with a focus on mental health with a newly established professorship in
Queen Silvia's name. As a starting point, a research conference is organized with the aim of connecting researchers with an interest in the field within the University of Gothenburg and representatives of the surrounding society.
On September 11 the university board decided to stand behind the decision that both departments of the IT faculty will merge with the Faculty of Science at the turn of the year. I am happy about the great commitment of everyone involved and with the board's decision the work can now continue to be pushed forward.
Within the sector, there are ongoing conversations on how we can cooperate and run a united front when resources are decreasing at the same time as development is required to meet the needs of both society and students. A clear indication of which issues are on the social agenda are some of the interesting investigations that are underway. One example is the Swedish Council for Higher Education's investigation into promoting responsible internationalization in education, research and innovation collaborations, another is the Association of Swedish Higher Education's investigation of control of educational offers. The university follows these with great interest and contributes with referral responses and the like.
Simply, an exciting autumn for us all!
Great commitment to Ukraine
oth departments of the IT faculty will be transferred to the Faculty of Science. That has now been decided by the University board. The change will require a lot of work. Among other things, the Faculty of Science increases its number of students by roughly 40 percent. For the IT departments, it is of course a challenge to find new collaborations in new environments.
Already on the same day that Russia's invasion of Ukraine began, Andreas Segerberg began saving as many web pages from Ukrainian authorities and organizations as he could manage. He is now active in the Sucho network, which works to preserve Ukrainian cultural heritage.
Ukraine is also highlighted in an article about two Ukrainian students who are studying here. The exchange has been made possible after the Erasmus program was opened up to Ukrainians.
Economics can be about a lot, but what does it have to do with the Stone Age? Well, there lies the very basis for human economic development, thinks Ola Olsson, who has written a book on paleoeconomics.
Has Chat GPT changed our language? Two researchers have done a study showing that the AI tool writes correct sentences, but the content is rather fluffy.
Vice-Chancellor MALIN BROBERG
Hope you will enjoy this issue!
Eva Lundgren
Many remaining questions when IT departments move
The IT Faculty ceases to be an organizational unit and both its departments will be transferred to the Faculty of Science. That is the meaning of a decision made by the University of Gothenburg board on 11 September. The new home of both IT departments applies from 1 January 2025, but the physical move will take place later.
THE DECISION IS based on an investigation of the IT Faculty last year initiated by the then Vice-Chancellor. In the original proposal, the idea was that only the Department of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) would be transferred to the Faculty of Science, while the Department of Applied Information Technology (ITIT) would become part of the Faculty of Social Sciences. After careful consideration, Vice-Chancellor Malin Broberg decided this spring to instead work for both departments to move to the Faculty of Science.
− The assessment is that a common residence for IT in the long term gives both education and research in the field the best conditions to continue to profile GU within existing and new collaborations, for example in life science with Sahlgrenska Academy, Chalmers and Region Västra Götaland, says Malin Broberg. The fact that the university board has now made a decision, means that work on reorganization can gain momentum, points out Malin Broberg.
− With the board’s decision, I am happy that the process now can continue forward. There is great commitment from everyone involved and a desire to steer strategic work in the IT and STEM areas with the new faculty as a base.
Whether the formation of a new faculty means a name change is not yet clear. But a working group has been appointed with representatives from several departments as well as students with the task of coming up with a name proposal and a vision for the new faculty, explains Göran Hilmersson, dean of the Faculty of Science.
− THE CHANGE will of course affect the Faculty of Science in a number of ways. In order for the reorganization to go as smoothly as possible, it is important to start the collaboration now. I have had several conversations with employees from the IT faculty and during the autumn representatives of both IT departments will be invited to department head meetings and all preparatory bodies. Among other things, the agenda includes a new vision and operational plan for the coming three-year period. Since we just had an election for the faculty board, we will not conduct another vote. But during the autumn IT representatives will be welcome as guests at our board meetings and next year the board will of course be supplemented with members from the new departments.
Among other things, the reorganization can lead to new op -
»I hope and believe that we will create something really good together ...«
Göran Hilmersson
Malin Broberg
portunities for synergies within the administration, which would strengthen the economy.
− The IT departments and the science departments will organizationally merge at the turn of the year 2024/2025. But the IT departments will remain at Lindholmen until further notice. Chalmers has decided that the entire university-joint department CSE, with approximately two-thirds of the staff employed at Chalmers, will move to Johanneberg as soon as premises are available. ITIT does not have an equally obvious location, but we have already started an investigation that looks at the alternatives on Medicinareberget. For there to be a successful organizational change, it is important to find suitable premises in direct proximity to other departments within natural sciences.
Today, The Faculty of Science and the Faculty of IT do not cooperate very much, Göran Hilmersson points out.
− BUT I AM CONVINCED that there is great potential for significantly more collaborations; the possibilities are great for academic synergies in both education and research.
Critical voices have pointed out the difficulties in bringing together two quite different activities in a short time.
− Of course, the reorganization will mean a lot of work, not least for the faculty office: around 175 new employees, 40 new PhD students and around 1,000 new students are involved. The fact that the Faculty
of Science increases its number of departments from seven to nine will of course also have an impact on our identity and the influence of the individual departments. A reorganization takes a lot of time and effort, and valuable knowledge risks being lost. But I hope and believe that we will create something really good together so that soon we can look back on all the work and say: Look how good it turned out!
NOT ONLY RELOCATION will take time. The finances will be kept separate during 2025 in terms of educational assignments, research grants and premises costs. The two IT departments will, however, contribute to the financing of the Faculty of Science's management and office. The goal is for the departments to be fully integrated by 2026.
Dick Stenmark, dean of the IT Faculty, is happy that there is finally a board decision to rely on.
− But this was not the vision for the IT Faculty I had when I became dean in 2018. We have been in a decision vacuum for a long time, but now the preparatory work with the transfer of the departments and the dismantling of the faculty office can officially begin. The overall decisions have been made but many challenges remain- Autumn will be busy both for us and for the Faculty of Science when we now
»Merging two organizations with different structures, cultures and orientations is both complex and resource intensive.«
Dick Stenmark
have to deal with all the practical issues that have so far not been noticed or left unchecked. Merging two organizations with different structures, cultures and orientations is naturally both complex and resource-intensive.
DICK STENMARK'S priority will be to give both IT departments the best possible future conditions to conduct high-quality research and education.
− But an extremely important task is also to take care of the staff at my faculty office and ensure that they land well after this process.
Text: Eva Lundgren
Photo: Johan Wingborg
Key figures 2023
Department of Applied Information Technology
Full time equivalent employees: 100
Doctoral students: 18
Full time equivalent studenst: 562
Revenues: 110 mkr
Department of Computer and Science and Engineering
Full time equivalent employees: GU 75 + Chalmers 212
Doctoral students: GU 22 + Chalmers 120
Full time equivalent students: 527 GU + 1 590
Chalmers
Revenues: 475 mkr
Naturvetenskapliga fakulteten
Full time equivalent employees: 746
Doctoral students: 200
Full time equivalent students: 2 581
Revenues: 1 230 mkr
→ Facts: An inquiry last year suggested that the IT faculty cease as an organizational unit and that the Department of Computer and Science and Engineering (CSE) and the Department of Applied Information Technology (ITIT) move to another faculty. Last spring, Vice-Chancellor Malin Broberg proposed that the university board follow the proposal and that the IT departments be transferred to the Faculty of Science. On September 11, the university board made a decision according to the proposal.
The two IT departments will be part of the Faculty of Science on January 1, 2025. However, physical relocation from the premises at Lindholmen will take place later. The work concerning the organization of the IT Faculty has been carried out by a coordination group, consisting of the Vice-Chancellor, the deans of the IT faculty, the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Social Sciences, the heads of CSE and ITIT, the chairman of the Göta student union's IT section, a representative of the Gothenburg University student unions (GUS) as well as the head of the university management’s staff.
STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Photo: JOHAN BODELL
Review of centres on its way
Is a centre of expertise a good way of working in a cross- or multidisciplinary manner?
Many would agree, while others point out the limitations that such a centre comes with.
For this reason, there is an ongoing review of the university’s centres of expertise to investigate whether they provide good conditions for research and education that cuts across scientific boundaries.
MATTIAS LINDGREN Sandgren, Communications Officer at the Grants and Innovation Office (FIK), was commissioned by the Vice-Chancellor last spring to conduct an unbiased investigation into the centres of expertise at the university.
– One express purpose of the rules for our centres of expertise is that they should provide conditions for working in an interdisciplinary multidisciplinary manner. But the question is whether a centre provides the best conditions for doing so. In order to ascertain this, I have interviewed around twenty people, such as current and previous centre directors, deans, heads of departments and members of the Research Board. I have also discussed the issue with representatives of five other universities that are wrestling with the same issues that we do: Everybody agrees that crossand multidisciplinary science is important but nobody has the perfect solution to achieving it.
The University of Gothenburg has around twenty excellent and
well-functioning centres, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Max Petzold explains.
– But the circumstances vary wildly. For example, we have the Wallenberg Centre for Molecular and Translational Medicine (WCMTM) which is part of a massive national initiative, funded by the Knut and Alice Wallenbergs Foundation. A special University of Gothenburg initiative was the UGOT Challenges, initiated by Vice-Chancellor Pam Fredman, in which six centres were funded over a six-year period. But most centres of expertise have been created on the suggestion by a researcher or research group, which gives us a range of different circumstances.
The vice-chancellor makes decisions on new centres of expertise that subsequently will be followed up on according to a certain cycle, something that certain people view as a good thing while others consider it unnecessary paperwork, Max Petzold explains.
– AT THE UNIVERSITY of Gothenburg all centres of expertise are located at a department that is responsible for its finances, employees and health & safety issues. A centre does not really have independent funding and it is rarely possible to apply for external grants for a centre, except for very specific exceptions. So even if it does not require much money to fund a director and a small administration, it still represents an additional expense for the department hosting it. The funding that a researcher or lecturer can generate will end up at the department to which the employee belongs, which
»Everybody agrees that cross- and multidisciplinary science is important but nobody has the perfect solution to achieving it.«
Mattias Lindgren
Sandgren
can thus be a different one from the host department, which is still responsible for all overhead costs at the centre. The funding issues can usually be resolved through a little pragmatism. But it might be a good thing to have clearer, and to some extent adjusted, rules.
MOST CENTRES FOCUS on research, Mattias Lindgren Sandgren explains.
– But there are also those who tried to create cross-faculty master’s programmes with all the challenges that can arise for the allocation of student funding. A centre should also have a time limit. But since cross-disciplinary science can be time consuming, not least as the participating parties need to familiarise themselves with each other’s fields, a centre of expertise may require additional time to get started.
One point of centres of expertise is to facilitate collaboration with external parties, such as other universities, municipalities, county administrative boards and industry. For example, instead of the City of Gothenburg needing to contact a health scientist at Sahlgrenska Academy, an economist at the School of Business, Economics and Law and a sociologist at the Faculty of Social Sciences, the collaboration can work a lot better through a centre, Max Petzold points out.
– But one limitation is the fact that a centre director does not have the mandate to make decisions, which can cause inertia in decision-making when several heads of department are involved and external organisations are part of the project
FIK will process the applications for forming a centre, says Mattias Lindgren Sandgren.
– Over the past few years we have not received many cases linked to new applications. Has the need been met or is a centre, as they currently operate, perhaps not a particularly attractive type of organisation? The interviews I conducted tells me that opinion is divided: Some people want more strategic control, while most people seem to prefer that new centres are initiated in a bottom-up process. I have now started to compile the different thoughts and views, which will lead to an open report for further discussion.
PERHAPS THER ARE more ways of supporting cross- and multidisciplinary research than by forming a centre, argues Max Petzold.
– One such example is the Environment for Development (EfD) which is not a centre, but a special unit at the School of Business, Economics and Law. There is also often an organic aspect to centre formation that we would not want to organise away by introducing strict rules. But it is perhaps less than ideal if things only work well because of one hard-working enthusiast.
Text: Eva Lundgren
Photo: Johan Wingborg
→ Facts:: A centre of expertise acts as a forum for researchers and students, but also for industry and the public sector. The centres of expertise are cross-disciplinary, and several subjects, faculty areas and universities can participate. At the University of Gothenburg a centre must have a department as its host.
The unbiased review on centres of expertise at the university will result in an openly available report at the end of September. Further discussions aboutcentres of expertise will be held during spring.
The review has been commissioned by the vice-chancellor.
Paus for Summer School
The university’s Summer School for Sustainability will be put on hiatus, according to a decision by the University Board of Education.
– The Summer School was originally intended to be a temporary project during the first strategy period of Vision 2030. The University Board of Education will now look into whether it will continue, says Deputy Vice-Chancellor Pauli Kortteinen.
INITIALT VAR TANKEN atInitially, the idea was for the Summer School to start in 2020. Due to the pandemic, it did not begin until the following year, and then in a digital format. The first Summer School on site in Gothenburg took place in 2022, says Anna Bellomi, International Officer at the International Centre.
– This year 147 students participated in the summer school. Of them, 126 were exchange students from 72 different partner universities
»There are many good things about the Summer School, but there are also challenges ...«
Pauli Kortteinen
in 27 countries. In addition to the exchange students, 40 students applied through antagning.se and 14 through universityadmissions.se.
In total 585 students have particippated in the school, the vast majority from our partner universities; these students are exempt from fees.
THE STUDENTS WERE aged from 19–40 and around 40 percent were master-level students, says Anna Bellomi.
– The students were very happy with both the course and the extra-curricular activities. But one challenge is the difficulty to get teachers to work in the summer.
The Summer School project was evaluated during the spring, Pauli Kortteinen tells us.
– There are many good things about the Summer School, but there are also challenges, not least financi-
al ones, as it is an expensive activity compared to our other regular teaching offer. Thus, the faculties have not agreed on whether we should continue the project, which is why the University Board of Education decided to put the Summer School on hiatus for the summer of 2025.
THE INTERNATIONAL Centre has drafted a report outlining possible proposals on how to continue the Summer School project. It includes a set project period of three or five years with a fixed budget and an expansion of courses which will include the participation of more departments.
– Later this autumn or maybe next spring, the University Board of Education will look into a possible extension, says Pauli Kortteinen. What is the purpose of the Summer School? What should be the theme of the Summer School? How should we organise and finance the Summer School with regard to its purpose, and any thoughts concerning content and theme? These are some of the questions that the University Board of Education need to ponder before presenting a proposal to the vice-chancellor and the university board about a possible continuation in 2026 or 2027.
The International Centre is responsible for the Summer School for Sustainability. Partnered with Welcome Services in welcoming international students.
Text: Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg
The university prepares its employees for cyber threats
Cyber attacks are becoming more and more common and are something that we all need to be aware of. To counter this growing threat the University of Gothenburg is launching web-based training in information security.
THE COURSE WILL START on October 18. All employees will receive an email with instructions and a lecture on a specific topic that will take a few minutes to complete. Subsequently, a new lecture will be posted every two weeks until the spring of 2025.
Mathilda Perisa is the Security Officer since one year. She argues that the most common method of cyber attack is to use email to penetrate security, so-called phishing.
– AI is being used more and more to create credible phishing attempts. Most people are convinced that these attempts will become increasingly refined in the future. It is enough if one single employee happens to click on a link in order for cyber criminals to access our systems. The consequences can be insurmountable.
One such serious cyber attack
was aimed at Finnish IT-provider Tietoevry in January this year. It closed down the payroll systems at 120 state agencies, at least temporarily. Several companies and organisations are now claiming damages from Tietoevry. But these attacks are probably under-reported as companies being hit do not want it to harm their reputation.
MATHILDA PERISA estimates that there is a fairly high awareness of digital risks at the University of Gothenburg, but stresses that it is about always being one step ahead working strategically.
– We also have good collaboration between Swedish universities and and colleges. Similar web training was also launched at Chalmers, Karolinska Institute and Uppsala University.
The basic training package
»We also have good collaboration between Swedich universities and colleges.«
Mathilda Perisa
bought by the University of Gothenburg was tailored to meet the operations and needs of the university. The lectures are divided into 3-minutes sessions which highlight topics such phishing, ransomware, multi-factor authorisation and the impact on AI on information security. But there are also lectures on the digital traces that we leave behind, the importance of storing information safely and how to browse safely.
– ONE ADVANTAGE is that it is easy to follow up on how many have attended training so that we can compare the outcome across the whole university. Hopefully it will also encourage discussions around the water cooler and staff rooms.
The level of the training is basic and is aimed at everyone,
→ About web training on information security
The concept, called nano-learning, is based on repetition over time and is a method of learning in which subjects are repeated regularly until the knowledge and awareness is embedded in the long-term memory. The training, which is provided in both Swedish and English, consists of a series of short lectures distributed directly via email, every other week (except during holidays) throughout the autumn and spring. The training can be conducted at any time, on your computer, ipad or phone.
regardless of previous expertise in information security.
Even if the course is mandatory Mathilda Perisa hopes that as many as possible participate in order to create more long-term protection against cyber attacks.
– WE WANT EMPLOYEES to think before opening attached files and and clicking links. It will lead to fewer incidents and we get a more robust university, says Mathilda Perisa before continuing:
– We get tools for handling dayto-day security challenges in a more efficient manner. It is about protecting sensitive research data and other valuable information. Also, it is training that will benefit you in your private life.
Text: Allan Eriksson
Illustration: Shutterstock
Children’s health in focus
WHO:s generaldirektör och The Director General of the WHO and the head of research into mental health at the Wellcome Trust are some of the prominent attendees at the round-table talks with Queen Silvia that will take place on October 10.
The following day, a major conference on global child and adolescent health will be held. Both events are parts of a major investment in the health of children and young people focusing on mental health, which also comes with a new chair in the subject.
CURRENTLY, PEOPLE ARE WORKING hard on drafting an advertisement and later on finding an expert panel of assessors for Queen Silvia's Professor in Global Child and Adolescent Health with a special focus on mental health. The chair has been made possible through an engagement grant by industrialist Carl Bennet in connection with Queen Silvia’s 80th birthday.
– The person we are looking for must be a scientifically prominent leader, committed to networking and partnerships as well as able to act as an ambassador for global issues concerning the health of children and adolescents, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Max Petzold explains. The chair will with either Sahlgrenska Academy, the School of Business Economics and Law, the Faculty of Social Sciences or the Faculty of Education.
At the same time, two major international events are being planned.
One is a round-table talk in the university main building attended by Queen Silvia.
– Several very influential people will be participating in the talk, such as Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of the WHO, Miranda Wolpert, head of the mental health research grants at the Wellcome Trust, as well as Pernilla Baralt, CEO for Unicef Sweden. There will also be representatives of the City of Gothenburg, the Västra Götaland region as well as representatives from several humanitarian organisations in attendance.
The following day, on October 11, an international conference on global child
and adolescent health will be held, says Max Petzold.
– It will be attended by the Wellcome Trust, as well as several international experts and prominent researchers from the University of Gothenburg. The issues brought up during the round-table talks on the day before will be discussed and delved into in depth.
Both the round-table talks and the conference will be held annually during the ten years of the chair’s tenure.
Text: Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg
→ Facts: : Queen Silvia's Professor in Global Child and Adolescent Health with a special focus on mental health is based on an engagement grant of 20 million krona from industrialist Carl Bennet. The chair is expected to be filled appointed in the spring of 2025.
On October 10 there will be a round-table talk in Vasaparken, where the queen will attend.
On October 11 the Global Child and Adolescent Mental Health Conference will be held, with several international experts and prominent researchers attending.
Place: The Malmsten Room, School of Business, Economics and Law.
A group comprising representatives from several faculties, Academic Ceremonies, the Communication Unit and the County Administrative Board are currently working on the chair and the conference. Deputy Vice-Chancellor Max Petzold, who has led the group, will partly hand over to responsibility for it this autumn to Per Cramér, formerly the Dean at the School of Business Economics and Law.
Mathilda Perisa
Drottning Silvia kommer att närvara.
Religion as a political force
“An afterlife in the making” is what Siv Ellen Kraft calls the religions of indigenous people that are based on fragments from the past, compiled in the present.
References to those beliefs have become more and more common among people such as the Sami in order to influence legislators and the public in struggling to preserve their rights or fighting destruction of habitats. It is about the return of the old religion.
ONE SUCH EXAMPLE is the shelved plans to build the Davvi wind power plant in Levajok in the Norwegian Finnmark.
– Those who object to the power plant argue that the area includes the Rásttigáisá mountain, which many people consider sacred. A civilised country would not want to violate the beliefs of its citizens, would it? Said Siv Ellen Kraft, Professor of Religious Studies at UiT, the Arctic university of Norway. She was one of the keynote speakers at the Annual Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions in August.
Protests against predatory exploitation and other forms of environmental damage have previously been put forward by secular representatives for
various indigenous people. But lately, religion has grown in importance in these contexts, explained Siv Ellen Kraft.
– Since the 1970s a idea has spread among indigenous peoples in different parts of the world that their religions may be different, but they are still based on the same fundamental ideas. What characterizes this shared notion is said to be holism, animism, shamanism as well as a reverence for Mother Earth. In a Sami context, these notions are represented by the drum, the joik and the noaidi.
HOWEVER, much knowledge about traditional Sami religion has been lost. In the 17th and 18th centuries, christian missionaries used heavy-handed tactics against the “heathens” in Sápmi, banning the religion as well as burning drums and other cult objects.
In order to explain the contemporary recreation of a partly lost indigenous religion, Siv Ellen Kraft uses a metaphor. She has borrowed it from researchers Þóra Pétursdóttir and Bjørnar Olsen, who talk about how objects from history randomly come together like flotsam and is put together in the present in unexpected but useful ways.
– One example is the author Ailo Gaup who studied shamanism with the American anthropologist Michael Harner and then transferred his
»A civilized country would not want to violate the beliefs of its citizens, would it?«
Siv Ellen Kraft
knowledge to a Sami context. But art is also an important part in reconstructing a Sami identity. Other examples include musician and activist Mari Boine and artist Outi Pieski who has been commissioned to design a 50 metre high work of art next to the new government building being erected in Oslo.
Referring to religion in the fight to preserve nature of for their own rights has only become more common over the past ten years. Religion will sometimes give new weight to the protests, Siv Ellen Kraft explained.
– In the application to locate part of the Winter Olympics in Tromsö in 2003,
there were plans to build a slalom pis te on Tromsdalstinden. After the Sami Parliament, based on a clause in the Historic Environment Act, concluded that the mountain is sacred the plans were shelved. And then of course, there was no Norwegian Winter Olympics that time.
BUT IT IS NOT ALL so simple that all Samis agree with the revival of Sami religion. It is mostly Sami people in the cities, who are often well assimilated in majority society, who want to take back their original culture. Sami people living in traditional rural areas are less engaged.
– In Laestadian areas Christianity is still strong. To many people in these areas the old Sami religion is considered incompatible with the Christian faith.
Text: Eva Lundgren
Photo: Anders Åkerström
→ Facts: Siv Ellen Kraft, Professor of Religious Studies at UiT, the Arctic university of Norwa, was one of the keynote speakers at the Annual Conference of the European Association for the Study of Religions on August 19–23. The conference took place at Humanisten.
Siv Ellen Kraft’s latest book is called Indigenous Religion(s) in Sápmi: Reclaiming Sacred Grounds, published by Routledge.
Visit from Ukraine
This autumn, the Department of Languages and Literatures (SPL) welcomed two students from Ukraine.
– The Erasmus Exchange Programme made their stay here possible. Because since the war broke out, the European Union has decided that Ukrainian students should also be eligible for scholarships to study in an EU member state, says Malin Seljee, Education Administrator at SPL.
In 2018 the Faculty of Arts started an exchange programme with the Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, says Thomas Rosén, Associate Professor of Slavic Languages and Director of Studies.
– Because of the pandemic and then the war, we have been unable to have a student exchange. The fact that the Erasmus Programme now also grant scholarships to Ukrainians means that our cooperation finally got off the ground.
During their exchange semester the two students, Oleksandra Kyrsha and Anastasiia Hryb, will be studying English and German
– NATURALLY, WE ARE interested in our subjects, but also in the Swedish education system, says Anastasiia Hryb. I have a feeling that language studies here are more about practical exercise, while the theory is more important in Ukraine. The relationship between older teachers and students is more strict in Ukraine, but younger teachers are more informal, a bit like here. However, both teachers and students dress more formally at home, not wearing t-shirts and jeans.
– Of course, we are also
»... if there have been no attacks in a while, we forget to worry.«
Anastasiia Hryb
interested what it is like to live in Sweden, such as your traditions around Christmas celebrations, Oleksandra Kyrsha explains. I would also like to go out of a night, to a bar or nightclub; this is something that I have never done as I was too young before the war, and later it was not possible.
The war in Ukraine has
now been raging for two and a half years. Sometimes the bombings are very intense, but in between them you don’t think very much about it, Anastasiia Hryb explains.
– We attend our classes and do our homework, and if there have been no attacks in a while, we forget to worry. But the tension is always at the back of your mind, even here in Göteborg. Unexpected noise, such as the thunder storm a few days ago, felt very disconcerting at first.
Most bombings take place at night, says Oleksandra Kyrsha.
– We have an app warning us when an attack is incoming, so we are usually prepared. But people have grown accustomed to all the alerts and do not always go the shelters as they should. But you have to be able to sleep a well, particularly if you have a demanding job or maybe children to care for.
THE FACULTY OF Arts have helped procure housing for the two Ukrainians.
– We try to support all our students with practical matters but exchange students often require more help, particularly if they are from a war-torn region, Malin Seljee explains. Next spring we hope to welcome another two students from Ukraine, and we are hoping that Anastasiia and Oleksandra can assist us with their introduction.
Text: Eva Lundgren
Photo: Johan Wingborg
→ Facts: Since the spring of 2022 the EU has opened up the Erasmus Exchange Programme (the intra-European part) to students from Ukraine. This means that the students can take courses at universities in the European Union for which they credits in their home country. They receive a grant corresponding to the one applying to incoming students from the Erasmus Programme’s Non-European part: Erasmus ICM (International Credit Mobility). The grant is 900 euro/ month, as well as an additional grant of 250 euro/month, which is given to participants with limited opportunities, as well as a travel grant. In the current situation there is no exchange agreement required, although one exists in this case.
Oleksanda Kyrsha and Anastasiia Hryb are studying English and German at GU.
Diving into history
What does economy have to do with human evolution? Ask Ola Olsson. He is an economist who is not only interested in interest rates and inflation, but also in millennia-old roadworks, the shifting of ice ages and the development of the human brain. →
Text: Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg
Ola Olsson, Professor of Economics, has appeared quite frequently in Swedish media lately. It has been about what inflation really is, about how the wart in Ukraine has rocked the global economy, about the way in which the American economy may affect the presidential election as well as about the Russian Wagner militia and its ruthless hunt for gold and diamonds in Africa.
But what really peaks his interest is why certain countries create wealth and prosperity while other remain poor. To answer this question he has dug into several historic eras. And it is this research that has generated headlines in international media.
One example is the investigation into the origins of the Mafia, which Ola Olsson conducted with two Italian colleagues a few years ago.
– The origin of the Mafia is linked to marine physician James Lind and his discovery in the 18th century that lemon juice can cure scurvy. This led to a true citrus boom on Sicily where the growers made a fortune. At the same time, these were tumultuous times and after the unification of Italy in the beginning of the 1860s, Sicily was never particularly well integrated. When the legal system did not work, the Mafia stepped in to “protect” the businesses. In The Godfather Vito Corleone’s mother is murdered at a lemon farm on Sicily, whereupon her son flees to America, which historically is a fairly probable description.
Developments on Sicily is an example of “the curse of natural resources”, that is, that a wealth of valuable assets, instead of leading to something good, in a corrupt state may lead to war and other forms of violence.
– One tragic example is the Democratic Republic of Congo, which in spite of its extensive natural resources has been characterised by armed conflict for decades. But there are of course countries that managed to create something positive from their assets: Botswana, one of the world’s largest diamond producers, is both democratic and well-functioning.
Another of Ola Olsson’s projects that had a large international impact concerned the Roman Empire.
– The study, which I conducted with three other researchers, is an investigation into the link between today’s prosperity and the roads built by the Romans 2,000 years ago. We superimposed maps of the Roman road network on top of modern satellite images that show the light intensity at night, which is an indicator of economic activity in in an area. We could show statistically that in many of the locations where roads were built during antiquity, today there are cities and other activities, even though the roads are no longer there of course. Areas where roads rapidly deteriorated, such as in the Middle East and North Africa, do not have anywhere near the prosperity of these regions in Western Europe.
Even if Ola Olsson belongs to the group of men who
frequently think of the Romans, he is equally interested in many other things, such as roads in Sweden.
– Viabundus is a cross-disciplinary project that aims to create a freely available online map of medieval and early modern roads in Northern Europe. It is about investigating why they were constructed with precisely those routes and their importance. Denmark and Finland are already involved in the project, but Sweden is not, which I want to change. One important reason for building roads was of course to transport goods. In Sweden, it often concerned iron and copper which was often transported along waterways from Norrland and Dalarna to the the region around Lake Mälaren. The importance of getting goods westwards is the reason why Gothenburg, after several failed attempts, was eventually founded.
To get an economy working it is also important to have rules for ownership. In a recently concluded project, Ola Olsson and two political scientists studied the development of land surveying around the world. In 1628, king Gustavus Adolphus and his chancellor Axel Oxenstierna decided to map all of Sweden.
– In many countries, for example in Africa, a farmer does not own the land that he uses. This means that the farmer cannot leave his plot, because it would be free for anyone else to take over it. But if you own your plot, you can mortgage the property and and state can levy taxes. So land surveying and ownership are of great significance to a state’s economic growth.
And the climate is also important to a country’s economy. Ola Olsson also participated in a study that shows that the collapse of the Mayan culture around 800 C.E cannot be unequivocally explained by drought, which is common otherwise. On the contrary, in the short term it was during dry periods that large monumental structures were erected.
But economics can be studied in far longer perspectives than that. This autumn Ola Olsson will release a book about the Stone Age.
– Basically, economics is about how a biological creature can produce and consume sufficient amounts of food to be able to survive and reproduce. To do this, man made several unconscious economic choices in terms of technology and organisation which affected later evolutionary developments. One example is when Homo Erectus a million years ago learned to master fire. This meant that humans started to fry and boil food, which in turn meant that the gastro-intestinal tract could spend less energy on processing food and therefore shrunk. This saved both time and energy that was instead spent on developing our large brains. This special brain is one of the prerequisites for our unique social skills, where we can mix in large groups and manage to adapt to almost any environment on earth.
As an economist with a passion for history and the environment, Ola Olsson should perhaps be concerned
about a future with climate change and a growing number of authoritarian states. But Ola Olsson is an optimist.
– The climate is like an accordion where long ice-age periods are followed by shorter intervals of no ice. For example, over the past 300,000 years, man has lived through three ice ages, periods during which large parts of the world were uninhabitable and small groups of humans lived iin isolated habitats. But when the warmth eventually came, it happened rapidly, the temperature at the poles increased by 6–7 degrees in around one thousand years. People started spreading out, resulting in culture clashes and different exchanges. Today we see a human effect on this accordion that we of course must take seriously. Today’s CO2 levels in the atmosphere is higher than ever before in the past 3 million years. But I do not believe in any extreme future scenarios, such as our going extinct; we have survived extreme adversities before, so why should we not, with our modern technology and extensive knowledge, handle future challenges?
From July 1, Ola Olsson is the Head of Department at the Department of Economics with Statistics.
– The job takes up some of my time of course, but I do hope to have time for research as well. My other interests include music and football, I was the coach of my son’s football team when he was little. I also enjoy the outdoors, which led to my wife and I spending the summer on a special project.
We went swimming every day in June, July and August, and every time at a new place.
– I attended a four-day conference in Chicago last summer, and I never had the time to go for a swim. But
apart from that, we have done so every day, regardless of rain, wind and other bad weather. There are loads of lakes to discover around Floda where I live, with many wonderful sites.
OLA OLSSON
Is currently: Professor of Economics and Head of the Department of Economics with Statistics. He was previously the Associate Dean at the School of Business, Economics and Law.
He lives in: Floda.
Family: Wife and three adult children
Hobbies: Music, football, literature, the outdoors.
Most recent book: Yellowface by Rebecca Kuang.
Most recent film: Oppenheimer.
Favourite food: Mediterranean cuisine Ola Olssons most recent book: Paleoeconomics: Climate Change and Economic Development in Prehistory.
Saving Ukraine's digital cultural heritage
At four in the morning on February 24 Russia initiated their full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Five hours later, Andreas Segerberg was busy downloading as many websites from Ukrainian authorities and organisations as he was able.
In the beginning of March the same year he was one of around one thousand volunteers who co-founded the network, Sucho – Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online.
Andreas Segerberg, Research Coordinator at the Department of Psychology, has experience of working with digital archiving, at the Swedish National Archives as well as in connection with the terrorist attack in Stockholm in 2017. When he heard about the invasion, his first thought was to support Ukraine with precisely what he was experienced in.
– A few friends and I immediately started to download information from official agencies in order to facilitate for potential government in exile. After a few days of intensive work, we had archived all the state websites that we could access.
Through their network, the friends soon came into contact with Sucho.
– A umber of IT engineers, archivists, librarians and researchers had teamed up to download Ukraine’s digital cultural heritage. Currently, Sucho comprises more than 1,500 volunteers from 38 countries who have digitalised over 100 TB of data from Ukrainian cultural institutions. It includes digital exhibitions, library catalogues and 3D depictions of churches. Preserving the cultural heritage is important in itself of course, but also for investigating war crimes, Andreas Segerberg explains.
– Some terrible examples of destruction is the history museum in Kupiansk
where two employees, including the museum director, were killed in a bombing attack in April 2023, as well as the Kherson university library which was totally destroyed in November of the same year. Of course, in order to prove what the museum contained all documentation must be safely preserved, and this is what Sucho could assist with.
The network communicated through the cloud-based tool, Slack, and the work is documented in a Google document, which is open to all members. The information is also stored on the website, Internet Archive, where 17,000 Ukrainian books as well as newspapers and
»It is interesting, among other things, because this is the first full-scale war that is also being played out online.«
ANDREAS SEGERBERG
magazines have been digitalised. Amazon also supports the network by providing technical equipment and storage space, says Andreas Segerberg.
– The network also has several side projects. One such project, which I am involved with and which is run in partnership with Harvard University, deals with saving memes from the war. It is interesting, among other things because this is the first full-scale war that is also being played out online. So far, the platform has around 4,700 curated memes.
Sucho also have a digital gallery with examples of Ukraine’s cultural heritage, such as children’s drawings, as well as a
training programme for preservation for posterity.
– This means that 22 Ukrainian students have received grants in order to digitalise the archives at a number of the country’s museums. At the conclusion of the project, the museums will retain all the equipment and will thus be able to continue the preservation efforts.
Sucho’s work has garnered a lot of media attention and also received support from quite unexpected quarters, Andreas Segerberg explains.
– It is fairly difficult for a cultural heritage institution to contribute without violating laws and regulations. But the Munich Public Library has bypassed some regulations by laying off some employees who work with Ukrainian cultural heritage outside of the auspices of the library. At the same time, the network has increased international awareness of the importance of securely preserving cultural heritages.
The most prominent acknowledgement received by Sucho was when the network was awarded the European Union cultural heritage award, Grand Prix Heritage, in the Heritage Champions category.
In partnership with Unesco the governments of Ukraine and Lithuania arranged a conference last summer on the preservation of Ukrainian cultural heritage. Andreas Segerberg was there as a representative of Sucho’s.
– According to the Hague Convention, destruction of cultural heritage is a war crime. Of course, providing Ukraine with arms and other material is important. But the battalion of archivists and and librarians that Sucho contributes with may be just as important in the long term.
Text: Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg
Facts: The grassroots movement Sucho (Saving Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Online) comprises over 1,500 international volunteers working on digitalising the Ukrainian cultural heritage. Since Russia’s large-scale invasion in February 2022, the network has archived more than 6,000 websites with everything from national archives and 3D renditions of buildings to material from local museums and children’s culture. Sucho also archive memes from the war.
The network has also donated digitalisation equipment to over 70 Ukrainian cultural institutions.
Last year, Sucho was awarded the EU cultural heritage award, Grand Prix Heritage, in the Heritage Champions category.
The conference Towards the Recovery of the Culture Sector of Ukraine was held in Vilnius on June 6–7 and was arranged by the Ukrainian and Lithuanian governments, in partnership with Unesco.
More information can be found at: www.sucho.org.
Cooperation for global health
During two weeks in June, the University of Gothenburg was visited by 20 representatives of universities in i Armenia, Georgia, Moldavia and Ukraine. It was in relation to the Erasmus International Credit Mobility and the aim was to increase collaboration within public health.
Deputy Vice-Chancellor Max Petzold in his role as researcher and teacher initiated the exchange which is a partnership between universities in Eastern Europe and the School of Public Health and Community Medicine at the University of Gothenburg. The programme will run for a number of years and a first meeting was held in 2023 with attendees from Georgia and Ukraine. This time they were joined by colleagues from Armenia and Moldavia.
– Our partner countries have extensive experience of contagious diseases, such as tuberculosis, which we can learn from in Sweden, Max Petzold explains. In return they gain knowledge of the holistic approach that we have, where mental health and social factors are also included in the research into public health. The objective is hands-on experience for all parties with regard to creating better and more modern master’s and doctoral programmes. But it is also about lifelong learning, giving healthcare providers more opportunities for further training.
The first day included a visit to Occupational and Environmental Medicine to attend lectures as well as a demonstration of the different laboratories at the unit. Post Doc Sanna Kjellberg was one of the guides showing them around.
– I felt that the visitors were very inte-
rested in our operations, both in terms of how we are organised, our doctoral projects and our nice, well-equipped laboratories. Promoting international partnerships between universities is crucial and contributes a lot to research. They provide increased research opportunities, as well as benefiting individual researchers, in both a professional and personal capacity, which in turn will improve the quality of our research.
The programme contributes to the creation of a global network of people working in public health, argues Tetiana Petrusevych, Prefect at the Department of Epidemiology and Evidence-Based Medicine at Bogomolets National Medical University in Kyiv.
– The exchange improves our individual skills but also strengthens the participating departments. Getting new perspectives widens our understanding of public health and provides inspiration for new solutions to complex problems. This experience is invaluable in strengthening global health and promoting epidemiology and evidence-based medicine.
And just as importantly, we get to meet international experts and colleagues, she says.
– I am really looking forward to applying my new knowledge back home in Ukraine, regarding innovative methods in education for example. If I could wish for something concerning any future events, it would be even longer hands-on workshops and more interactive elements.
Nato Pitskhelauri is Associate Professor and Deputy Head of Department at the Department of Public Health, Tbilisi State University.
– During these meetings, we have discussed different partnerships, such
as joint publications, supervision of Master’s students and courses. Meeting colleagues from other countries has been very inspiring, not least attendees from Ukraine who, despite war and a lack of resources, still manage to focus on the day-to-day business and on developing their faculties. The visit to the city of Gothenburg, which involved meeting with colleagues as well as leisure activities, was characterised by a very friendly atmosphere. It means a lot to me, both professionally and personally.
Text: Eva Lundgren
Photo: Johan Wingborg
Facts: The EU funded Erasmus+ International Credit Mobility programme is an investment in collaboration with countries outside the EU/EEA. On the initiative of Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Max Petzold, the School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Department of Medicine, has committed to a long-term partnership with Ukraine and Georgia with the aim of strengthening basic and postgrad research within public health. The programmes have now concluded with an extended gathering in Gothenburg. Another programme started last year and includes Armenia and Moldavia. This programme will run until 2026 and also provides opportunities for researchers at the University of Gothenburg to receive doctoral students for longer periods, as well as to travel to Armenia and Moldavia. This year’s gathering comprised several visits, such as to the University Library, GU Ventures and the Grants and Innovation Office, as well as several lectures and a thesis defence. Other activities included the Art Museum, Volvo and Midsummer celebrations.
Post doctor Sanna Kjellberg shows the equipment at the School of Public Health and Community Medicine.
Mikael Ögren gives a lecture.
Fluffy with Chat GPT
Is it possible to see whether a text is written by a human or by AI?
This is something that linguists Monika Mondor and Joe Trotta have looked into.
The outcome? Certainly, there are differences, in terms of both language and content.
It was in the wake of Chat GPT becoming publicly available at the end of 2022 that Monika Mondor and Joe Trotta, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor in English, noticed that something had happened to the students’ written submissions.
– We noticed that certain words and phrases suddenly had become more common. So before the Grammar Festival last spring, we decided to conduct a study where we compared submissions written by students before Chat GPT became available, with submissions written by the AI tool, says Monika Mondor.
The researchers used 50 different samples comprising around 1,000 words each, written by university students studying English. Among the various subjects, there were argumentative essays about general societal issues, analyses of the English language in popular culture and English as a global language. Then they wrote instructions, or “prompts”, for the chat tool, in order for it to generate 50 essays along the same lines and
of approximately the same length as the student essays.
– We also prompted Chat GPT to generate essays with text that would correspond to samples written by university students who speak English as a second language, Joe Trotta explains. But fairly soon we noticed that the chat tool had problems coming up with more than around 800 words, after which the content started getting repetitive.
The aim of the study was not only to investigate the differences between AI-generated text and text written by humans, Monika Mondor tells us.
– It was also about finding out what AI is really good at, something that may be possible to use for teaching.
Things that Chat GPT does well include structure as well as preambles and transitions between paragraphs. The language is grammatically correct and so is punctuation and spelling, says Joe Trotta.
– But referencing is often flawed depending on which version of the software you use. The AI also use more advanced terms than the students, but it is at the same time partial to certain phrases, such as a rich tapestry, to delve into something, to showcase something, to embark on a journey … Overall, the AI often uses sweeping phrasing with elegant wording, but it tends to be very fluffy. Generally, the students are better at sticking to a strictly defined subject and providing tangible examples, even if
we would wish that they were even better at it.
The AI-generated text often comprised sentences of similar length, around 15–20 words, while the students’ sentences were longer as well as shorter in length. A more varied sentence length can be a measurement of quality in terms of flex-
»Overall, tha AI often uses sweeping phrasing with elegant wording, but it tends to be very fluffy. «
MONIKA MONDOR
ibility and adaptation to the content and reader, Monika Mondor points out.
– Using the Flesch Kinkaid readability index we also estimated the level of difficulty of each text. The AI wrote on a level appropriate for research papers in a professional context, while the students wrote for a reader at the same level of education as themselves, which is more appropriate for this type of assignment.
Both Monika Mondor and Joe Trotta are convinced that Chat GPT will play an important role in teaching in the future. But the tool needs be used correctly.
– For example, AI can help increase student awareness of structure and, to some extent, vocabulary, Joe Trotta
argues. It could also act as a study buddy and suggest alternatives and solutions that the student had not thought of. AI can also provide tailored exercises, such as for students with spelling difficulties or problems with grammar.
And text analysis can be an important area for Chat GPT as well, Monika Mondor points out.
– The students could work in groups analysing different types of text and develop an awareness of AI-generated text in comparison to text written by humans. How do you tell the difference? Are certain types of text better than others and if so, why? Our teacher student in particular need to develop an understanding of the possibilities and limitations for using AI in schools.
But Chat-GPT also places new demands, not least on teachers, says Joe Trotta.
– How can we change teaching in order to make the best use of the new technology? And how can we use different forms of examination to ensure
that they truly measure what they are intended to measure, with or without AI as a permitted tool?
One important task for future teachers will be to argue why students should spend time and energy on learning how to write, instead of just letting an AI do the work, Monika Mondor argues.
– Writing is about learning how to think when faced with a complex topic, how to structure and process text, creating an internal reality and taking responsibility for communicating the content in an appropriate manner to an imagined target audience. Just letting a machine do the work will provide no understanding. Chat GPT can definitely be used in teaching but it must be done responsibly and not as a short-cut to avoid having to think for yourself.
So, is it possible to determine whether a text is written by a human or by AI? Yes, but not with 100 percent accuracy, says Monika Mondor and Joe Trotta.
– There is a lot happening in AI at the moment, and as we become more aware
of those “fingerprints” the tools will improve further, which creates an arms race of sorts. In addition, it will probably become more difficult to identify AI-generated text in the future as the tools are being trained on larger volumes of material, including academic writing. The situation is made more difficult by the fact that a growing number of people use AI, making AI-generated language part of our regular use of language. This will lead to a continuous loop of linguistic influence and change.
Text: Eva Lundgren Photo: Johan Wingborg
Facts: In connection with the Grammar Festival last spring, Monika Mondor and Joseph Trotta, Senior Lecturer and Associate Professor/Excellent Teacher in English at SPL, first presented their study, Lingua Ex Machina: The Role of Grammar in the Imitation Game, where they compared 50 AI-generated samples of text with 50 samples written by students.
Monika Mondor and Joe Trotta.
Eutopia course on reaching out with science
– I learned a lot during the week – even more than I expected, says Susan Harrington, post doctor at the Department of Applied Information Technology. She has just returned from Berlin after a week’s training in research communication, organized by the Eutopia network.
On September 9–13 it was time for the Eutopia Impact School. A total of thirty postdocs from the ten Eutopia universities had gathered in the conference villa Evangelischen Bildungsstätte on the island of Schwandenwerder outside of Berlin. Their purpose? To learn how to present their research in an accessible way. One of the postdocs was Susan Harrington, who researches inclusive pedagogy.
– It was not only about practicing things you have difficulty with, but also about realising what you’re already good at, which is always a nice boost. I’m now a lot more confident at giving at quick introduction to my work, thanks to the 3-minute pitches.
Although the participants had very different backgrounds, both professionally and personally, they wrestled with very similar problems when it came to explaining their research, says Susan Harrington.
– For example, nobody was particularly enthused about being interviewed by a journalist on camera, but we all did it super well. It’s also very useful to realize which terms are most confusing to others outside my field, and those aren’t necessarily the ones I would have considered to be technical terms!
Not least important was the encouraging atmosphere, says Susan Harrington.
– I’m very introverted and not particularly keen on public speaking, so it was really encouraging to be told by others how well I did it.
Chiara Pasian at the Department of Conservation, explains that the week was quite intense.
– Science communication must be simple yet accurate and professional. I saw how terms which didn’t look technical to us still might be perceived as obscure and complicated to the audience. Practical daily life examples are very useful. I use them often with my students, but I practiced how to embed them in a pitch and in writing as well.
What Chiara Pasian appreciated most was that the participants came from so many different fields and that the goal was for everyone to understand each other's research.
– My field is conservation of wall paintings and stone, which is already highly interdisciplinary, but it was amazing to hear research topics from aerospace engineering to philosophy, from colleagues around the world. If I need to
think about something which could be improved, I’d give us more time to practice what learnt still during that week, striking while the iron is hot.
Text: Eva Lundgren
Facts: The Eutopia Impact School was organized in Berlin on September 9–13. During one week, thirty postdocs, three from each Eutopian university, trained presentation techniques and research communication. Participants from GU were Susan Harrington, Department of Applied IT, Richard Endörfer, Department of Philosophy, Linguistics and Theory of Science, and Chiara Pasian, Department of Conservation. Read about the program on the Employee portal.
Chiara Pasian tells about the conservation of wallpaper.
The Moment
Where? Who? When?
• Jacy'z hotell och resort.
• Professor Mats Brännström samt Malin och Claes med sonen Vincent.
• 5 september 2024.
• Jacy'z hotel and resort.
• Professor Mats Brännström as well as Malin and Claes with their son Vincent.
• September 5, 2024.
Brief description
– I’m a regular guy who likes sports, golf in particular. My favourite school subject is art. When I grow up I’m going to be a pro golfer. This is what 10-year-old Vincent explained at an international conference on uterus transplantation. Vincent was born on September 4, 2014 as the first child in the world who was conceived after a uterine transplantat, which took place within the scope of a research project at Sahlgrenska Academy. Currently, the number of completed uterus transplantations are estimated at around 120, and the number of child-
ren born at around 60, of which 17 in Sweden.
Mats Brännström, Professor of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Sahlgrenska Academy as well as a gynaecologist and senior consultant at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital, stressed the importance of a rapid recovery for the recipient, but also for the donor, who has undergone extensive surgery in order to help another woman.
– Looking to the future, we can expect the donor not needing to be a close relative but any person, who donates through an altruistic and anonymous donation.
Photo: Johan Wingborg