It was an impressive and beautiful sight when 20,000 staff members and students held a party in the University Park on Friday 17 June. There were seven bands on two stages, evening meals served in six tents, and parties in the Mathematics Canteen and Stakladen after the concerts in the University Park, which finished off with a bang by D-A-D.
There was a very good atmosphere at all locations throughout the day, evening and night. People had fun socialising with their close colleagues – and new ones. All in all, it was a fantastic celebration. Thank you one and all.
Dorthe B. Ravnsbæk, Aarhus University, has won the European Young Researchers’ Award 2011 as the best PhD student in Europe. The award was granted by Euroscience, a European association for the advancement of research in Europe. The selection committee was unanimous in its decision, selecting Dorthe Ravnsbæk from among the PhD students nominated for the award.
Dorthe Ravnsbæk is currently finishing off her PhD dissertation at iNANO and the Danish National Resarch Foundation’s Centre for Materials Crystallography. Her research aims to find new materials for storing hydrogen, so that we can use sustainable energy sources in future as fuel in transport.
Lauritz Holm-Nielsen is the Danish member of Euroscience’s Governing Board.
As a result of a postcard campaign organised by the Student Council at Aarhus University, Rector Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen has received more than a thousand postcards from students, listing their priorities regarding the maintenance and development of a good study environment at Aarhus University.
The overall impression from the thousand postcards backs up the results of the new study environment survey very well. The students focus very much on having a good framework for the academic activities at the university. To a large extent, they also want to keep up the tradition of having drinks together on a Friday evening, and this should no doubt be seen in connection with the forthcoming reshuffle of premises for the different study programmes. In its future-oriented work to develop the good study environment at the university, the senor management group will use the results of the postcard campaign, along with the study environment survey and other input from students.
In January, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation and the Ministry of Education appointed a working group for education in foreign languages, spearheaded by Bodil Due. The working group has now produced a report with specific recommendations regarding how we can enhance the skills of the Danes in a number of languages.
The starting point for the working group is the increasing concern for language education, the diversity of languages offered, and the fact that not enough pupils choose foreign languages at school, upper secondary school and institutions of higher education. The report’s recommendations to the universities will be discussed at a meeting attended by the rectors and the Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation later this summer.
The work involved in preparing the concept for the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS) has been launched. The objective of this initiative is to attract some of the most talented researchers from all over the world – along the lines of the Junior Fellows programme at Harvard University. AIAS should improve the framework for particularly talented young researchers, partly in the form of better opportunities to carry out research in an international and interdisciplinary environment. AIAS was set up in collaboration with the Aarhus University Research Foundation, and is supported by DKK 50 million over the next three to five years.
There is an interview with Professor Karl Anker Jørgensen about the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies in the latest issue of UNIvers, published on Monday 27 June.
Aarhus University is holding its annual celebration on Friday 9 September. The event has proud traditions and begins during the afternoon with speeches and a prize-giving ceremony in the Main Hall. Later in the evening, the festivities continue with a concert followed by a buffet in the Concert Hall Aarhus.
Invitations will be sent during the week beginning 8 August, and university employees can register for the evening celebration on a first come, first served basis.
Kind regards
The Senior Management Group
27 June
The Senior Management Group publishes a newsletter every week. This newsletter includes a brief description of current activities and discussions. You can sign up for the Danish version of the newsletter at http://info.au.dk/medarbbreve, after which you will receive an e-mail whenever the newsletter is issued.
If you would like to subscribe to the English version of News from the Senior Management Group, please go to http://info.au.dk/medarbbreve/index.asp?sprog=en. The English version of News from the Senior Management Group is available at http://www.au.dk/en/about/uni/seniormanagement/newsletter/. You can read previous editions of News from the Senior Management Group at http://www.au.dk/en/about/uni/seniormanagement/newsletter/2011.