Newsmail #76, 2023-12-01

Dear all,

This week the election process for the faculty boards was initiated. Members with permanent positions as researchers, adjuncts, assistant professors, associate professors, professors are expected to vote for members of two boards: the faculty council and the school board (Election of teachers' representatives to the Faculty Council and new Faculty Boards | KTH Intranet). As you have seen, our own Fredrik Asplund is nominated for the school board, and our own Sofia Ritzén is nominated for the faculty council. On Wednesday the candidates for the school board were introduced to all ITM staff members, at a breakfast mingle session, and today the faculty council candidates introduced themselves on zoom. With the nominated candidates I think the future for KTH and the ITM school looks better than ever. Please vote!

On Tuesday I met with the school JML group to discuss how we can ensure that the JML work continues. In some cases it’s moving in the right direction, in other cases not. We have proposed an activity that will focus on recruitment for 2024, to see how we can improve that, to find a better gender balance onwards, long-term. I’ll come back to that.

On Wednesday the ITM mgmt. group spent a full day discussing educational strategies for the future. Which BSc- and MSc-program areas to focus on, which structures needs to be improved (or created) to enable future programs that attract students. I hope I can come back to this further on.

Yesterday the KTH central recruitment committee discussed our intention to open up three faculty positions in Dynamic Complex Systems. I believe the decision has been made, but we have not been informed yet, so I basically keep my thumbs crossed that we now have the permission to announce these positions – it would mark the first real milestone in our ambition to establish this new field. As soon as I get the information, I’ll let you know. Perhaps we can celebrate soon.

Talking about celebration, I have invited all to a “fika” on Dec 13. At this Fika, we’ll celebrate a number of colleagues who have reach other milestones – 40 or 50 or 60 years. Please join!

Now I wish you all a nice weekend, a nice “första advent”. Also – don’t forget to vote 😊

Best,

Martin