A ceremony and reception to mark the opening of AU's new International Centre and PhD House will take place on 1 February. Building 1650 at the southern edge of campus now houses a range of new facilities and services: International Centre; the IC Dormitory, introductory housing for new international PhD students; a new café; and the new PhD House, which will become a venue for social and academic activities for the university's growing population of Danish and international PhD students.
The name of the building will be announced at the official dedication ceremony on 1 February. HRH Frederik, Crown Prince of Denmark, will participate in the ceremony. He will reveal a major new mosaic by the acclaimed Danish artist Erik A. Frandsen. AU Nobel Laureates Jens Chr. Skou and Dale T. Mortensen will also participate in the ceremony.
After the ceremony, there will be an open house for all AU employees from 12.30 pm to 2 pm.
Aarhus Faculty of Arts will host café seminars in Emdrup and Aarhus to provide students and staff members with a forum for discussing the Task Force's vision and its proposed academic structure for the new faculty. The proposal will be available in Danish on the academic development webpage on Monday 31 January at 2 pm.
During the formal public consultation period from 1 to 11 February, employees are also encouraged to submit individual written comments on the tasks force's proposals. Along with the Task Force's proposals and the discussions which take place at the café seminars, these responses will form the basis for the dean's final proposal to the AU senior management group.
Please note that Arts employees who wish to participate in one of the seminars need to register in advance. The final deadline for registration is Thursday 3 February at noon.
Professor Jens Stougaard, Department of Molecular Biology, and Professor Jørgen Christensen-Dalsgaard, Department of Physics and Astronomy, have been awarded multi-million grants by the European Research Council. Only twelve Danish research projects have been selected to receive ERC grants in this round of applications.
Dr Stougaard has been awarded DKK 17 million to study several aspects of the plant cell's ability to absorb bacteria or to fight the bacteria which cause diseases in plants. Dr Christensen-Dalsgaard received DKK 18 million to support research on the structure and development of stars using the techniques of astroseismology.
Professor Christian Søndergaard Jensen, Department of Computer Science, was awarded a major Danish research grant, the Villum Kann Rasmussen Annual Award for Technical and Scientific Research, on Monday 24 January. The amount of the grant is DKK 2.5 million.
Dr Søndergaard Jensen is engaged in ground-breaking research on database management and data-intensive systems. He is an internationally recognised authority on the efficient storage and search in relation to temporal and spatiotemporal data. Each year, the Villum Kann Rasmussen Annual Award for Technical and Scientific Research is awarded to a Danish researcher in recognition of an exceptionally significant contribution to research.
On 27 January, Minister of Science awarded two of five EliteForsk ('elite research') awards to Professor Bo Brummerstedt Iversen, iNANO, and Professor Søren Riis Paludan, Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology. Each year, the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation recognises Denmark's best researchers with EliteForsk awards. The award includes a research grant of DKK 1 million along with a personal award of DKK 200,000.
Four young AU researchers were also recognised at the EliteForsk ceremony. PhD students Naia Morueta-Holme (Biology), Kasper Green Larsen (Computer Science) og Jonas Lerche Hansen (iNANO), and research assistant Line Gebauer (CFIN) all received EliteForsk DKK 300,000 travel stipends.
Aarhus School of Business and Social Science has created a new internal newsletter to be published in both Danish and English. The newsletter, which is called Internal News for Aarhus School of Business and Social Sciences, will be published every Friday morning. The newsletter replaces the two former internal newsletters entitled News on Inline and Internal Newsletter for the Faculty of Social Sciences.
A formal strategic collaboration has been established between Aarhus University and Swedish-Danish Arla Foods, the world's third largest cooperative dairy company. The collaboration will strengthen existing collaborative relationships in the areas of food sector research, development and education.
Arla and AU have agreed to drawn on one another’s researchers, technology and competences in connection with projects and other activities aimed at increasing our knowledge about food safety, nutrition and health, the composition of milk, consumer insight, packaging and sustainable production methods.
AU HR sent a Danish brochure on change and stress to all AU employees last week. An English will be available within the next few weeks. The brochure contains information about the factors which can lead to stress and directs both managers and staff to sources of guidance and counseling on stress. The brochure is the result of a collaboration with the workplace environment consultancy company Crecea A/S.
In collaboration with the Danish Working Environment Authority, AU HR has launched a stress awareness initiative which will consist of thirty-five free workshops which will focus on concrete, individual issues and challenges related to stress and change.
Departments, sections or groups interested in taking part in this initiate are invited to contact the Work Environment Sector at arbejdsmiljo@au.dk.
Sincerely,
The Senior Management Group, January 2011
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.