Foto: Eivind Senneset, UiB
Dear all,
Welcome back after a well-deserved Christmas break. I hope you have all rested and recharged all your batteries, so that we are ready to embark on a new semester with new opportunities and challenges. At least one thing is certain; our scientific fields, our research and communication, our teaching, our students and all our activities are at least as important in 2023 as they have been in the past.
Unfortunately, we have to start the year with sad news. Two giants in biology have passed away.
During Christmas, our Professor II Rune Waagbø suddenly passed away after a short illness. It is incredibly sad and a great loss for the Institute of Marine Research and BIO. Rune did a fantastic job in teaching and supervision at BIO for a number of years. He was also a highly internationally recognized researcher in Fish nutrition and had a central role in the development of this field. Thank you Rune for your efforts. You will be sorely missed. My thoughts go to Rune’s family. A condolence protocol can be found in the canteen at Høyteknologisenteret.
Per Arild Aarrestad passed away January 2nd. Per Arild was one of my own excellent teachers in Botany and had a great impact on my own professional development. Per Arild was very important in establishing research on coastal heather at BIO and at Lygra, and he greatly contributed to establishing NINA here in Bergen, at Marineholmen. Thank you Per Arild for your efforts in Botany. You will be sorely missed. My thoughts go to Per Arild’s family.
I wish you all a nice weekend.
Hilsen Ørjan