Mikael Lindström becomes Deputy President of KTH
The KTH board of directors has appointed Mikael Lindström, Professor in Pulp Technology and Head of School at CBH, as the Deputy President of KTH. He will take up his post on 1 January.
“I am delighted to be entrusted with the exciting challenge of helping to lead KTH over the next few years,” he says.
“I accept the task with great humility. KTH has been around for almost 200 years, and many people have made a tremendous effort to get us where we are today,” says Lindström .
What will be the first thing you do?
“Although I’m no newcomer to KTH, I will have to listen carefully to what’s going on around the university and see what needs to be prioritised. I start as Deputy President on 1 January, but I’ll be shadowing the new President and the outgoing Deputy President during December.”
How do you view your role as Deputy President? How do you want to contribute?
“I’ve been at KTH for a long time, most recently as Head of Schoolfor eleven years, so I am familiar with what we need in terms of education and research.
“There’s a lot that works well in our education and research operation. The challenges are more on the cost side, for example how we manage our shared costs, premises and infrastructure. I also think it will be important that KTH has a strong experimental environment moving forward, linked to our education and research.”
You’ve emphasised “a trust-based organisation” as a core issue – why is that important?
“I hope I can help us all feel part of the education and research operation at KTH, whatever our role. So it’s important to have confidence in the operation, and that there’s a sense of trust that everyone is doing their utmost within the existing frameworks.”
Told to: Christer Gummeson