Newsmail #18, 2022-02-17

Dear all,

A few years ago, I built an UV detection instrument for my home. Today, I was notified in an email from my instrument to myself that the instrument detected UV light yesterday, for the first time since October last year. This could be a sign that the spring is near. This morning however, it did not feel like spring when I biked to work. Only rain and snow.

Last week, I wrote in my Newsmail that I feel like our situation regarding gender balance, equality and heterogeneity is not improving. This newsmail rendered considerably more reactions than I am used to, I haven’t responded to all yet. Many of my dear colleagues gives many examples of where we see considerable improvements, and, some colleagues show me issues that I did not really thought about before.

We do have come quite far. All our managers are now either trained in JML management, or are half-way through their training. We have an active JML group. I see very conscious decisions taken in recruiting new members, the most recent one yesterday, when the mechatronics group hired a new female member, as a direct result of active work and conscious decisions by the unit. We have BSc/MSc programs with a balanced recruitment of students. We are very international in most units, we try to treat each other equally.

Even if I felt the rain and snow this morning, I knew that the spring is almost here, since my instrument said so. There’s a lot of people who do great work towards an equal KTH, to enable open discussions and a welcoming atmosphere. But to get this to function well, we need people who react when someone says something that is not ok. We need people who make sure that everyone around the lunch table is included in the discussions, we need people who dare to say that the head of department could do something better or differently, that’s the instruments we have and need, to be able to make this change, our JML instrument.

My UV instrument also told me that last year the first UV ray was detected on Feb 17, so the spring came to me one day earlier this year. Perhaps that is a different concern. Our JML instrument (the responses to my last email) gave me many reasons why we need to continue the work and guidelines on how to proceed. So, more to follow.

Best,

Martin