Greetings from the Department – 12.05.2023

Foto: Eivind Senneset, UiB

Hei dere,

First of all, I would like to thank Hilde Armo as a member of the management team at BIO, as representative of the technicians. As Hilde is now joining the administration as a student adviser, she will be leaving the management team. Many thanks Hilde for her efforts. You have been an important voice there, on behalf of the whole of BIO and not least the technicians. I and the others have greatly benefited from your input. And then I would like to thank Birte Töpper as a new member of the management team and representative of the technicians. Thank you very much for your contribution, Birte, and I look forward to having you along.

Thank you to everyone who attended the general meeting earlier in the week. I always find it rewarding to meet you and listen to input. Next time, towards the summer holidays, I hope we can present the long-term budget and have even better attendance. Information about time and place will follow.

Last year we had the lowest number of dissertations ever, with only 13. We weren’t alone in that; the entire faculty had a sharp decline and something can certainly be attributed to corona. Education at PhD level is one of the most important things we do, so it is important that we contribute more here. Then it is very pleasing that already before the summer we seem to be approaching last year’s number of defenses and that we can therefore expect that we will reach around 20-25 defenses by the end of the year.

We have many PhD candidates and post docs at BIO and they are a particularly important group indeed. In order to strengthen the professional-social environment among these, the research education committee will prepare a scheme that will contribute to this group becoming more closely interwoven, across groups. In addition, it is important that the groups are active in creating good professional and social homes for PhDs and post docs.

Next week will probably be a bit slow in terms of work, with two days of public holiday, not least 17 May. I take this opportunity to wish you all a happy 17 May, and say Congratulations on the day.

 

God helg!

Hilsen Ørjan