PROFILe 13/14

PROF ILe

Photo: Lars Kruse

The Lakeside Lecture Theatres On 28 May 2001 the Lecture Theatres were inaugurated as a much needed expansion of the university’s teaching facilities, as Aarhus University had been subject to a construction stop for a number of years, while at the same time the student population had increased by 30 per cent. In 2004 the Lecture Theatres were renamed the Lakeside Lecture Theatres. The building is located at the southern end of the University Park and contains five auditoriums with room for almost one thousand people in total. Designed by Mads Møller (19412013), the structure engages the university’s main building at the northern end of the University Park in an intense dialogue. The main building was in fact designed by the architect’s father C.F. Møller in the 1940s. Both structures are large buildings for many people, and

both have large gable windows and a prominent underpass, which can be perceived as the southern and northern gateways respectively to the Aarhus University of the time. With no fewer than eight different types of windows, the Lakeside Lecture Theatres also refer to other buildings in the University Park. As Mads Møller said: »The idea here is that one should be able to explore the building’s architecture and identify these historical traces, but at the same time our intention has been to give visitors the sense that this is a building that is in tune with our own time.« The interiors are characterised by intensive focus on light, experience, materials and details, and Per Kirkeby’s 450 m2 decoration of the foyer and stairwell completes the impression of an exceptional building.

4

Aarhus University’s strategy for 2013-2020 identifies three strategic priorities:

Research

Education and Talent

Internationalisation

pages 14- 27

pag es 2 8 - 4 1

pages 4 2 - 5 5

Basic research and core disciplines of the highest quality that will generate research break-throughs and collaborate to produce new interdisciplinary research.



Five examples of AU’s focus on Research:

INTERACTING MINDS AU’s interdisciplinary centre Interacting Minds creates human interaction

Solid research-based degree programmes for all students combined with supplementary academic activities and challenges for the most talented and motivated students.



Five examples of AU’s focus on Education and Talent:

»There’s a need to think outside the one-size-fits-all box« Focus on developing of teaching and innovative learning environments

This elite centre is working to reveal the mysteries of the brain

Talent development at all levels

– AU centre in European research flagship

– and to the benefit of society

Pioneer at a crossroads

The doors are always open

Portrait of a world-class AU researcher

Two young researcher talents on the road to a research career

AU IDEAS AU IDEAS supports creative research ideas

»We have the right researchers, the right research and the right framework.« AU and Horizon 2020

Competing to attract the best AU offers attractive career paths to international research talents

Educated for the world AU develops degree programmes that answer to society’s needs and span the entire academic spectrum

Internationalised teaching and research programmes that contribute to the high concentration and mobility of talent at all levels.



Five examples of AU’s focus on Internationalisation

AU gives eminent researchers from all over the world free rein The Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS) is open and has welcomed its first fellows

AU expands international collaboration Portrait of three of the latest partnerships

Chinese students curious about the Scandinavian Model AU’s Summer University offers international students a peek

Research without border: space medicine AU attracts increasing numbers of international researchers

In the heart of campus A vibrant international study environment

5

contents Welcome...........................................................................................................................6 AU in brief..........................................................................................................................8 Research......................................................................................... 14-27 Education and Talent...........................................................28-41 Internationalisation.............................................................42-55 Changes at the top of the world ....................................................................56 The annual boat race in the University Park ...........................................64 Particle therapy on the way to Denmark ..................................................68 AU is a valuable neighbour for Google .....................................................72 The Silicon Valley of food will be located in Aarhus ..........................75 SkyTem ............................................................................................................................ 76 WEBSOC ........................................................................................................................78 REEAD ..............................................................................................................................80 MatchPoints 2013 .....................................................................................................82 A Nobel Laureate remembers .........................................................................86 AU’s 2013 Distinguished Alumnus ..................................................................88 Vision and public spirit ..........................................................................................90 Aarhus University in figures ................................................................................92

6 Photo: Jesper Rais

We must protect the spirit of the university Why are we here, what is our role, and where are we going? These are the kinds of questions we continue to ponder through-out our lives – because our lives must give meaning. In the world of research, the raison d’être is practically a given. The reason for our existence is our independent search for knowledge and insight and, most importantly off all, the education of qualified Bachelor’s Master’s, and PhD graduates. The goal of all of these efforts is to find applications for the latest scientific and scholarly advances, and to meet society’s justifiable demand that we contribute to the continued development of our society, culturally, scientifically and not least economically. Aarhus University has been through a far-reaching reform pro-

cess. In order to strengthen our core activities and prepare the university for the future, we have created a new organisational framework and administrative processes. Since 2006, as a consequence of a series of major mergers in the university sector and society’s increased focus on research and education, Aarhus University has doubled the size of its student body, the number of PhD students, and its turnover. In the face of such major physical and organisational transformations, we might well enquire how our the academic raison d’être has fared. Is it under pressure? Without a doubt, the answer is yes. Much has been said and written about the optimisation of the university’s strengths, competitiveness, funding and effectivisation – and not so much about preserving and

7

Desire, passion and engagement are still the forces that drive research, education, talent development and knowledge exchange. We must keep the enthusiasm in the eyes of our students and staff glowing. Brian Bech Nielsen, Rector

cultivating the fundamentally sound values of the university. It takes time to implement major forms and to get them to function as intended. We’ve come a long way. But in the phase we are entering now, we must make sure that we preserve and focus on the spirit of the university, which hasn’t been having an easy time of it. Desire, passion and engagement are still the forces that drive research, education, talent development and knowledge exchange. We must keep the enthusiasm in the eyes of our students and staff glowing, and we must protect the culture that promotes cooperation, critical dialogue, creativity and curiosity. The university consists of its staff and students, and they must experience the university as an inspiring setting for their work and study. Only through their efforts will Aarhus University be able to realise the ambitious goals laid out in the university’s 2013-2020 strategy. The essence of the strategy is quality in everything we do, and the goal is to be a leading globally-oriented university with a strong engagement in the development of society.

• Basic research and core disciplines of the highest quality that will generate research break-throughs and collaborate to produce new interdisciplinary research.

We are in a good position to reach that goal. Aarhus University is a broad institution with programmes in all of the central scholarly and scientific fields of inquiry: from the humanities, theology and education to the natural sciences, engineering, the social sciences and health science. And to make sure that we’re on the right track, we have identified three strategic priorities that are elements of the university’s raison d’être:

Enjoy!

• Solid research-based degree programmes for all students combined with supplementary academic activities and challenges for the most talented and motivated students. • Internationalised teaching and research programmes that contribute to the high concentration and mobility of talent at all levels. Aarhus University’s talented researchers and teachers have created the foundation we will continue to build upon. How? To get an idea, read this profile brochure. In it, we present a cross-sectino of the university’s many current and future activities.

Brian Bech Nielsen, Rector, Aarhus University

8

AU in brief Photo: Lars Kruse

Run on manure, FUELED BY grass Green fuel for cars, airplanes and ships has come a big step closer. Danish researchers have developed an efficient, economical technique for transforming all kinds of biomass into oil. In collaboration with the company Steeper Energy ApS, researchers at Aarhus University and Aalborg University have developed a ground-breaking new process that efficiently transforms all kinds of biomass into a raw bio-oil that is comparable to fossile raw oil in all practical respects. The method is called hydrothermal liquefaction (HTL). Essentially, it involves pressure-cooking biomass. The techno-

45%

logy is able to exploit 85-90 per cent of the energy in biomass, more than any other known technology. Without costing more. At the same time, HTL technology has the advantage of being applicable to all of the forms of biomass produced by a modern society. Researchers are now testing HTL on a larger scale in order to produce sufficient oil to test in the airplane, ship and lorry motors of companies including SAS, Stena Line, Shell Denmark, MAN Diesel and Scania Denmark.

higher than the world average: citation frequency for research from Aarhus University according to the Nordforsk report from Nordic Council of Ministers.

9 Photo: Bent Odgaard

Pollen reveals a new interglacial »Before now, we knew of only three interglacial before the current warm period. But we have discovered a new one.« Bent Odgaard, professor of palynology at Aarhus University, is behind this remarkable new discovery. Pollen is an important source of insight about the development of climate and vegetation over time. At Trelde Klint, a cliff near the town of Fredericia in mainland Denmark, AU researchers found sediment from a period 340,000 years ago. The pollen-based analysis of the sediment showed that the climate in this period was warmer than previous assumed – so warm that it qualifies as a true interglacial period.

Time outs: AU researchers at the top of the best seller list The price says discount, but the quality is anything but – if we can trust the reviews and sales figures. The Aarhus University press launched an innovative new series of academic books aimed at a popular audience last year. The series, entitled Tankepauser (Time Outs) has been popular in another sense, too: several of the books in the series have topped the Danish non-fiction best seller list. The books in the series are short (60 pages) popular essays by individual AU researchers and are devoted to a single topic, from »Freedom« to »Networks« and »Monsters« to »Trust«, »Anger«.and »Denmark«. The Time Out books can be downloaded free of charge in Danish at: da.unipress.dk

Two out of three The School of Business and Social Sciences (BSS) at Aarhus University can now call itself an AACSB accredited business school. This accreditation from the respected AACSB (Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business) is a major landmark in BSS’ efforts to become a so-called triple crown accredited business school. BSS is already EQUIS accredited. The final and third accreditation, the AMBA accreditation, is the next goal. »With the AACSB accreditation, we have proven that Aarhus University has a broad business school that is capable of achieving recognition from the oldest and largest business school accreditor,« says Dean Svend Hylleberg (BSS).

10

AU in brief Photo: Colourbox

New partnership strengthens the learning of children and youth A new partnership between the City of Aarhus, VIA University College and Aarhus University aims to enhance children’s and young people’s learning through incorporating new technological possibilities in the theory and practice of education. According to Mette Thunø, dean of the Faculty of Arts, the partnership opens exciting new perspectives: »On the university’s side, we are deeply concerned with the interplay of research with society, and the partnership establishes a unique opportunity to conduct practicebased research and knowledge exchange that will one day benefit coming generations of children, youth and teachers.«

A top 100 university Aarhus University’s ranking on the global ranking lists

TOP 50

QS

81

SHANGH

I TA

8

2007

Aarhus University’s ranking on the world ranking list of universities founded less than 100 years ago.

AI

N WA

TODAY

11 Photo: Henrik Skov

Breaking new ground not just for a new building, but for a project that will build up knowledge that will continue to multiply for many years to come, and that will benefit us all. With the Villum Foundation’s generous donation, researchers her at Station North will have optimal conditions for strengthening Arctic research and generating new knowledge on the massive climate changes taking place in the Arctic. HRH Crown Prince Frederik at the inauguration of the new research station Villum Research Station at Station North, just 800 kilometers from the North Pole. The research station is a collaboration between Aarhus University and the Greenland Home Rule Government. Researchers are creating one of the world’s most advanced experimental research stations at Station North in Greenland. The project was made possible by the Villum Foundation grant of 9.3 million Euros.

Photo: Jesper Rais

Aarhus University Hospital: the best in Denmark For the fifth year in a row, Aarhus University hospital was named the country’s best hospital by the weekly health sector newspaper Dagens Medicin (Daily Medicine). According to editor-in-chief Kristian Lund, the explanation for the hospital’s success is the unique Aarhus University Hospital structure: here, research and treatment go hand-in-hand. To select the country’s best hospital, the paper evaluates data from patient treatment from a range of sources, including the National Indicator Project (NIP), patient satisfaction, and a Dagens Medicin reader poll. As Lund points out, AUH won by quite a considerable margin: »You’re lengths ahead of the runners-up. You compete in 36 specialisations, and you win in 28 of them, and the hospital is no lower than a third place in any of the other areas.« According to Lund, the close link between clinic and research is the main explanation for the hospital’s success. Dean Allan Flyvbjerg agrees: »We have world-class health science research and degree programmes, and we make a focussed effort to incorporate the latest knowledge into the treatment of patients in a close partnership between Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital. Beyond a doubt, this is a big part of the secret of our success.«

State-of-the-art facilities for students On 31 August 2112, students at Aarhus University’s School of Business and Social Science got a state-of-the-art high tech 11,000 km2 building for both academic and social activities. The five-storey building has 5-600 study spaces, modern classrooms with digital blackboards, group study rooms, relaxing lounge spaces, a big cafeteria and a concert hall with 1000 seats. There is a fantastic view of the city and the bay from the classrooms and study spaces on the top storey. On the fourth storey, student organisations have new offices and better facilities.

12

AU in brief Photo: Colourbox

New centre for research on child and youth well-being With a 8 million Euro grant, TrygFonden has taken the initiative to establishing a new research centre at Aarhus University. The goal of the research centre will be to demonstrate that it is possible to accumulate solid knowledge about what works and what doesn’t when it comes to improving the wellbeing of children and youth. Professor Michael Rosholm will head the centre. Over the next six years, he and the centre’s researchers and partners will conduct research on what social interventions work.

Nine out of ten can avoid an operation A new test may save men from overtreatments for prostate cancer. Researchers from the Department of Molecular Medicine (MOMA), Aarhus University Hospital, and the Department of Clinical Medicine, Aarhus University, have developed a new test that can be used to distinguish between aggressive and benign prostate cancer. This has not been possible before now, which

7,276

means that many men undergo surgery for prostate cancer even though they neither need nor benefit from the treatment. The most common side effects of the surgery are incontinence and erectile dysfunction. »Up to 90 per cent – or nine out of ten – could perhaps avoid surgery if we had better tests for determining the aggressiveness of the disease,« says Professor Torben Ørntoft.

The number of students who received a letter of acceptance from Aarhus University in 2013

13

A very well-run university which is seeing strong development within all its core activities, and which is now entering a phase of consolidation after the university’s change process. This is the overall evaluation of Aarhus University in the supervisory report from the Danish Agency for Universities and Internationalisation.

New mask may revolutionise treatment of epileptics

Super maize fertilises itself A new research project funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will pave the way for a cheap, sustainable solution to some of Africa’s food supply problems. Researchers from Aarhus University are involved in the project, attempting to develop maize that creates its own fertilizer, thereby increasing yields for poor farmers. »This is an example of how many years of basic research can lead to ground-breaking applied research that will have a profound meaning for many people,« says Professor Jens Stougaard, who heads a research group that has already unravelled the mechanisms that enable leguminous plants to enter into symbiotic relationships with bacteria that can fix atmospheric nitrogen. As nitrogen is an important nutrient for plants, this ability means that legumes are able to create their own fertilizer. It is this ability that scientists are attempting to transfer to maize, which is not a legume.

A PhD student from Aarhus University has developed a respiratory mask which may change the treatment of epileptic seizures. The invention recently won first prize in the Venture Cup Startup Competition. Potentially, the respiratory mask can stop an epileptic seizure within 20 seconds, where other treatments take up to 5-10 minutes before they work. By means of a re-inhalation bag and a special membrane, the mask increases the amount of carbon dioxide in the inhaled air, without the patient running out of oxygen. This has an instantaneous effect on the nervous system, stopping the epileptic seizure immediately. This benefits patients enormously, for the longer a seizure lasts, the more damage it does. Photo: Colourbox

14

resear research

Aarhus University has strategic focus on basic research and core disciplines of the highest quality that will generate international research breakthroughs and combine to produce new interdisciplinary research.

rch

15

21st century science depends upon the collaboration between disciplines to deliver new opportunities to create knowledge and impact. I applaud Aarhus University in recognizing that our ability to tackle some of the biggest challenges we face globally depends upon thinking differently and being proactive in creating the right environment for interdisciplinary research.

Anne Glover is Chief Scientific Adviser to the President of the European Commission and Professor of Molecular biology and Cell biology at the University of Aberdeen. Glover’s role as Chief Scientific Adviser includes provision of independent expert advice on any aspect of science, technology and innovation as requested by the President of the European Commission. She also acts as an ambassador for European science, both promoting and communicating the benefits and values of science in Europe.

Photo: Lars Kruse

interacting minds The AU interdisciplinary centre Interacting Minds is generating new insight into what happens to people when they interact with each other. What goes on in their brains? And what happens to their feelings? And how does communication affect all this? The AU interdisciplinary centre Interacting Minds was established in August 2012. The centre has been quick to develop research collaboration across traditional disciplinary boundaries. »Humanists discover that they can use biologists, physicists and psychologists – and vice versa. The humanists bring new ideas to clinical and scientific research areas,« explains Professor Andreas Roepstorff, director of Interacting Minds. Roepstorff is himself both an biologist and an anthropologist. »In fact, research partnerships that weren’t even included in our research plan have already developed. The researchers find out on their own that they can draw on each other across specialisations and disciplines. What’s at the core of what we’re

doing is the object of our research – human interaction – and that’s what we have in common. Completely new forms of research collaboration and projects sprout from this,« says Roepstorff. Although the researchers affiliated with the centre have widely different academic backgrounds, they share a common approach: curiosity and willingness to break down traditional disciplinary boundaries, working together to reach a deeper understanding of human interaction. Andreas Roepstorff has always been deeply interested in interdisciplinary research and in understanding the mechanisms that come into play when people interact with each other. »Understanding human interaction is essentially a matter for the humanities. But it also has significant ramifications for the social sciences and medicine. If, for example, we are to understand all the complexities associated with mental disorders, it is clearly necessary to bring in knowledge from health sciences, but in addition biology, psychology, anthropology and sociology are all relevant if we are to investigate and understand the issue in depth,« says Andreas Roepstorff. »We can explore human interaction in all its aspects and illuminate it from several angles,” explains Roepstorff.

17

Interdisciplinary research centres Aarhus University has established seven interdisciplinary research centres. The fundamental idea is to create an oasis in which to establish new research partnerships, where strong researchers at Aarhus University can collaborate with colleagues from other areas of specialisation and freely follow uncharted potential in a new, joint direction. Interdisciplinary research is understood as research, where strong research groups from different main academic areas join forces and integrate information, data, methods, concepts and theories with the aim of conducting basic research or resolving problems, which require combined knowledge from multiple research disciplines. The seven interdisciplinary research centres at AU Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO) MINDLab Centre for iSequencing (iSEQ) Centre for integrated Registerbased Research (CIRRAU) Arctic Research Centre (ARC) Interacting Minds Centre (IMC) Participatory Information Technology Centre (PIT)

Photo: Lars Kruse

Professor Andreas Roepstorff has studied both biology and anthropology, and divides his research work equally between these two fields. He is director of Interacting Minds, an interdisciplinary centre with 40 affiliated researchers from a wide range of fields. Vibeke Fuglsang Bliksted Vibeke Fulgsang Bliksted is a psychologist who has worked with young schizophrenia patients for nine years at OPUS, a clinic for young schizophrenia patients , at Aarhus University Hospital. She is also an associated researcher at Interacting Minds (IMC). She recently completed her PhD.

Three examples of the kind of research taking place AT Interacting Minds.

18

Schizophrenia is not just schizophrenia There are big differences in how much people with schizophrenia are able to interact with other people socially. This is the conclusion of a new PhD project by psychologist Vibeke Fuglsang Bliksted. Based on these findings, Bliksted believes there is a need for a more nuanced understanding of schizophrenia and of the treatment patients receive. »Some patients with schizophrenia master social cognition – in other words, they are capable of reading and interacting with other people in a social interaction in a relatively unproblematic way. Others lack this ability and have great difficulty in reading other people,« explains Vibeke Fuglsang Bliksted, clinical psychologist at the Section for Psychoses, Aarhus University Hospital, Denmark, and an associated researcher at the AU interdisciplinary centre Interacting Minds (IMC). In her PhD project, Bliksted collaborated with IMC linguists, drawing on their knowledge of semiotics and theoretical understanding of how human beings constantly decode tone of voice and facial expressions. Together they set out to examine what happens in the brains of patients with schizophrenia when they are exposed to sarcasm.

The focus of the study was on young patients recently diagnosed with schizophrenia. A total of 59 subjects participated, 19 of whom received so-called functional brain scans. Patients were shown short video clips with enactments of everyday situations. Each scene was shown in both a sincere version and a sarcastic version. »The most severely affected patients couldn’t register the difference. They perceived all of them as sincere, and brain scans revealed that this group of patients had lower levels of brain activity than healthy control subjects. Another group of patients interpreted the actors correctly. However, brain scans of this group showed higher levels of brain activity than healthy control subjects, which can be interpreted to indicate that these patients have developed compensatory strategies in order to distinguish sincerity from sarcasm. This insight may turn out to have crucial significance for future treatment of schizophrenia patients,« explains Fuglsang Bliksted. »We will be able to diagnose patients more precisely and not least tailor treatment regimes to the needs of individual patients.«

Photo: Lars Kruse

»Peter hates girls, except Lise. Her he loves.« with non-standard word order. But in some cases, the non-standard word order occurred in a context in which it would be natural to expect it, as in the example ´Peter hates girls, except Lise’. In this case it feels natural to say ‘Her he loves’. »Our brain scans demonstrate that standard word order is easier to understand because our brains are used to processing messages presented in that form. Because when we place non-standard word order in contexts in which it is expected, it is just as easy to understand.” We call this predicative coding. The brain simply does a form of statistics on the background of the many linguistic impressions and experiences it has received. In this way, it develops systems of linguistic expectations which in turn form the basis for understanding other messages.

How does the brain work with language? Associate Professor Mikkel Wallentin is exploring this question in an Interacting Minds project that draws on his expertise in dramaturgy and cognitive semiotics, which he combines with brain scans. As Wallentin explains, »for most people, it’s harder to understand non-standard word order than normal word order. The brain normally needs to spend more time on the sentence ‘Her he loves’ than the more usual word order ‘He loves her’.« But why is that? And what does it say about how our brains process language? Do we have a specific word order mechanism in our brains that controls how we understand language, or is it because our brains have been trained to expect a particular word order? To find the answer, Wallentin measured the brain activity of people engaged in understanding sentences

The voice is the key to diagnosing mental illness Let me hear your voice, and I’ll give you a diagnosis. While this might sound like science fiction, it’s not far off the goal of a research project at Interacting Minds. In fact, there is a link between speech patterns and mental illness: depressed patients tend to speak in a monotone, autistic patients speak mechanically, and schizophrenics speak tonelessly. This information can be used in an objective way to support the process of diagnosis, according to the two AU researchers behind the project, Kristian Tylén and Riccardo Fusaroli. The project is an attempt to combine cognitive semiotics with psychiatry with the help of statistical programmes that calculate everything automatically. »We record patients’ voices and run the recordings through an algorithm that codes the patterns and calculates how much the rhythm and prosody – the pattern of word stress and pauses

between sentences – diverge from the norm,« explains Tylén. The project is a collaboration between researchers from Arts, Health and Aarhus University Hospital, and draws on research questions, methods and data from several different fields. It will pave the way for more objective diagnoses of mental illnesses that are not solely based on the individual doctor’s assessment. »The method makes it possible to determine whether a patient is suffering from a particular mental illness with exactitude, as well as the severity of the illness. For example, there are many degrees of depression, and distinguishing among them is important,« says Riccardo Fusaroli. The system will be ready for implementation at hospitals within a number of years. Its introduction will lead to a faster, more efficient diagnostic process that improves care while saving resources.

20 Photo: Colourbox

Elite centre to solve the brain’s mysteries AU centre part of European research flagship

about DANDRITE Danish Research Institute of Translational Neuroscience Includes scientists from the Faculty of Health and the Faculty of Science and Technology. The centre will employ approximately ninety scientists when in full operations. They will conduct research on the brain’s communication pathways and how they are disrupted by disease. The goal is to develop medicines and new forms of treatment. Another goal is to create a foundation for the establishment of new businesses. The centre was established on the initiative of the Lundbeck Foundation, which contributed 804,453 Euros in funding for the first five years. The total budget is expected to reach approximately 66.6 million Euros.

about EMBL European Molecular Biology Laboratory Is among the world’s leading institutions for basic molecular biology research. Receives government funding from 20 members states. Consists of 85 independent research groups. Offers scientists access to infrastructure in five advanced laboratories in Europe

»We aim to be first with new ideas.« Professor Poul Nissen’s words leave no doubt about the high ambitions of DANDRITE, the new elite research centre at Aarhus University. For the next ten years, international interdisciplinary research groups will work to solve the brain’s mysteries. The centre, which was established with support from the Lundbeck Foundation, was selected as the Danish partner of the Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine by the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL). EMBL is Europe’s flagship laboratory for the life sciences. Participation in the Nordic EMBL Partnership gives researchers from DANDRITE access to the most advanced equipment and facilities. »Our infrastructure, our researchers’ freedom, and the considerable resources at our disposal mean that we’re in a position to make good on our ambitions,« asserts Poul Nissen, director of DANDRITE. He will head the centre in collaboration with the other core team members, Anders Nykjær and Poul Henning Jensen, who, like Nissen himself, are professors at Aarhus University. »DANDRITE is a chance to establish a completely new research specialisation at Aarhus University,« says Nissen. He and the centre management are in the process of an international campaign to recruit five junior research group leaders who will be offered an initial fiveyear grant of 2 million Euros to establish independent research groups. DANDRITE will conduct research in a range of areas, from molecular biology and biophysics to clinical neurophysiology and biotechnology. The expertise of the three core team members provides a point of departure for the centre’s activities. These include protein structurefunction of membrane proteins, membrane receptors and animal modelling,and molecular neurodegeneration. The centre will focus on understanding brain cell signalling processes and the complex structure of cell signalling networks, including how these processes are affected by neurological and psychiatric conditions.

21

Strong core disciplines and excellent basic research are the foundation for all of the University’s activities. Aarhus University has established a position for itself among the leading research universities in Europe. On the international ranking lists, the university is placed among the 100 best in the world, while among the youngest universities it is in the top ten. AU researchers are among the absolute best in the world in many core disciplines. One of them is Professor Bo Barker Jørgensen.

Pioneer at a crossroads Bo Barker Jørgensen started making waves in the international research community back when he published his MSc thesis. And he has continued to do so in the decades since then; Jørgensen has been responsible for numerous breakthroughs in our understanding of nature. The 66-year-old professor of geomicrobiology is an internationally recognised pioneer in exploring the microbiology of the deep-sea bed biosphere, where microorganisms live in oxygen-deprived settings. Among other breakthroughs, Jørgensen’s recent work on the role of deep-sea bed microbes in the carbon cycle is an important contribution to understanding the marine ecosystem. Bo Barker Jørgsensen is the director of the international Centre for Geomicrobiology, a centre for basic research which received a five-year extension of its grant from the Danish National Research Foundation in 2012. In 2012, Jørgensen was also awarded an Advanced Grant from the European Research Council (ERC), one of the most prestigious and competitive research grants available to European scientists. Jørgensen’s field is biogeochemistry, a highly interdisciplinary area of inquiry – as the name indicates. »To understand the environment these organisms live in, we

5,199

Bo Barker Jørgensen CURRICULUM VITAE 2012- Professor of geomicrobiology at the Department of Bioscience, Aarhus University Renewed grant to the Centre for Geomicrobiology 2007-2011 Director of the Centre for Geomicrobiology, Aarhus University and professor at the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology 1992-2007 Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology i Bremen, Germany 1973-1992 Aarhus University AWARDS 2013

Awarded Aarhus University’s Rigmor and Carl Holst-Knudsen Award for Scientific Research

2012

Awarded a European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Grant conferred on the absolute elite among Europe’s researchers

2010

Awarded the Jim Tiedje Award – the most prestigious international award in the field of microbial ecology

2009

Awarded the Bundesstiftung Umwelt German Environmental Award, the most valuable European award from an environmental foundation

have to include both biology and geology. And most of our work is chemistry,« explains Jørgensen. But he doesn’t view interdisciplinarity as a value in itself, he explains: »Value comes out of reaching new insights by working together with other fields. Our centre is a good example of this, because geology, geophysics, microbiology and molecular biology are involved in the many research projects we’re working on.« Jørgensen also served as the director of the Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology in Bremen for nineteen years, an institute he was head-hunted to help establish. Despite his many years of experience with academic administration, Jørgensen’s approach to creating good research environments is not primarily based on structures and strategies. »That has never concerned me. A good research environment comes from good researchers. The trick is to find the best junior researchers and the best students for PhD projects,« he states.

Jørgensen has published almost 300 articles and they have been cited approximated 22,000 times.

peer-reviewed research publications were published by researchers from Aarhus University in 2012

22

AU IDEAS supports creative research ideas AU IDEAS held its second round of applications in 2013, and the response was overwhelmingly positive. AU IDEAS received 218 applications from the university’s researchers seeking funding for exciting new research projects and research centres to be launched in 2014. The pioneering AU IDEAS grant programme – the first of its kind in Denmark – was established in 2011 by Aarhus University and the Aarhus University Research Foundation. The goal of AU IDEAS is to help develop and realise Aarhus University’s creative research potential by providing funding to innovative new research ideas which might otherwise have difficulty finding funding through the traditional channels. There are two types of AU IDEAS grants. One type of grant is available for project development. Funding is available for a period of one to two years to test the viability of a new research idea. The other grant is available for establishing pilot centres. Funding is available for a period of three to five years to test the viability of a research centre concept. Here are some examples of the 45 AU IDEAS projects and centres that received grants in 2012.

Conditions of Democratic Stability and Breakdown: The Interwar Period Revisited The project analyses democratic breakdown and survival in the interwar period and attempts to determine the extent to which these historical connections and conditions are relevant today.

Fictionality The Centre for Fictionality Studies The centre will illuminate how fictionality helps us navigate in a modern mediatised cultural context, and how fictionality has been applied in different historical contexts to legitimise or delegitimise actions and utterances.

fictionality.au.dk

Project Centre Romanticism as identity formation – past, present and future The project has established two platforms for Scandinavian studies in romanticism: A peer-reviewed interdisciplinary journal in English, Romantik: Journal for the Study of Romanticisms, and a website with information on Scandinavian publications, exhibitions, seminars, etc. in the field of romanticism. The website is also the journal homepage.

romantikstudier.dk

EPICENTER – The Centre for Cultural Epidemics How do non-contagious diseases spread? We know full well that obesity is not contagious. Nevertheless, we find it perfectly natural to talk of an obesity epidemic, in just the same way as we talk about flu, TB and AIDS epidemics. And this just might be more than a figure of speech, according to researchers from EPICENTER. »Diseases such as cancer, anorexia and diabetes, and phenomena like suicide and self-harm, are spreading in patterns typical of epidemics. In other words, they are contagious. Not in the traditional sense of the word, but through channels such as consumption habits or the Internet,« explains Professor Lotte Meinert, an anthropologist at the Department of Culture and Society. She and anthropologists Jens Seeberg head EPICENTER. »We want to extend and refine the concept of contagion. As anthropologists and researchers in the humanities, we are able to take a step back and examine social processes and diseases in a wider perspective. It can make a great difference to the political and economic mechanisms that are set in motion if the WHO or the Danish Health and Medicines Authority declare something to be an epidemic.«

epicenter.au.dk

23

The democratic public sphere There is a solid tradition of understanding public dialogue as the lifeblood of democracy as the context in which public opinion is formed and in which elected politicians justify and defend their exercise of power. »But today, public dialogue is challenged on several fronts,« says Professor Henrik Kaare Nielsen, who is director of a centre that will take the temperature of the democratic public sphere in Denmark. He points to such developments as spin, the professionalisation of politics, the commercialisation of the media and unequal access to participation in public debate as factors that challenge the democratic public sphere. »The aim of the project is to conduct an interdisciplinary analysis of these many challenges and to determine their character and the extent of the threat they pose. On the basis of this analysis, the project will recommend steps to strengthen public dialogue as a factor in the political decision-making process.«

offentlighed.au.dk/en

Carbon Politics This project examines the paradoxical outcomes of the global and local negotiations over the value of forests and investigates the mechanisms behind the implementation of REDD (the UN programme on Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation) as a specific value scheme in West Kalimantan, Indonesia.

ARCII – The Aarhus Research Center for Innate Immunology The overall aim of the centre is to identify and characterise mechanisms of innate immune detection of virus infections. As Professor MSO Søren Riis Paludan, director of the pilot centre, explains, »Since the innate immune system impacts on many diseases with a common set of mechanisms, a strategic long term goal of the pilot center period is to broaden its activities beyond virus infections to include other microbial infections and inflammatory diseases.«

cii.au.dk

24

Research on Schools for Health and Sustainable Development Research on health promotion and education for sustainable development in schools The goal of the centre is to conduct outstanding research on health education, health promotion and education for sustainable development in schools. In Denmark, health, the environment and sustainable development constitute transversal dimensions to be integrated across the boundaries of subject and year group. The centre will work to develop innovative approaches to examining the competences that future generations need in order to participate competently in addressing the challenges related to health and sustainability, in the context of uncertain knowledge and high levels of complexity.

shs.au.dk

POLIS – The Centre for Political Party Research The core idea of POLIS is to study democracy through the lens of political parties and their interactions with voters and the mass media. According to Professor Christoffer Green-Pedersen, director of POLIS, »Political communication has come a central , if not the most central, aspect of contemporary politics. To understand the role of political parties in political communication is one of the most central question for political science today. It is one of the questions we must answer if we want to understand power and political influence in contemporary politics.«

ps.au.dk/forskning/forskningscentre-og-enheder/polis

What makes a student successful? A large-scale experimental investigation of behavioral correlates The project investigates the causes of the high drop-out rate among Danish university students. The significance of factors such as individual study skills will be examined using questionnaires and behavioural experiments. There is a special emphasis on problems related to self-control.

25 Project Centre CIRCE – Center for Informatics Research on Complexity in Ecology The aim of the centre is to study the importance of complexity for how ecosystems function and respond to environmental change, by employing an informatics approach, analysing large ecological data sets using advanced statistical and mechanistic modelling. Jens Christian Svenning, professor at the Department of Bioscience and centre director, explains, »We know today that massive climatological and environmental changes will take place over the coming decades and centuries. The question is what these changes will mean for ecosystems and biodiversity, and it’s extremely difficult to say anything about this, as we’re dealing with very complex systems in which animal and plant species – and many other factors – are mutually dependent on each other. At CIRCE, we are attempting to apply a range of new methods to understand the significance of this complexity so that we can prepare ourselves to deal with the changes we know are taking place.«

The digital audiobook and mobile listening – new medium, new users, new literary experiences? Are the uses and experiences of the digital audiobook primarily literary, referring back to the printed book? Or should they rather be seen as a special instance of mobile audio culture – constituting a medium,which is technologically, aesthetically/perceptually and sociologically different from the paper book?

projects.au.dk/circe

The Invention of Fast Chemical Transformations: New Potential Clinical Applications for Positron Emission Tomography The aim of the project is to develop a new synthetic chemistry to produce a wide range of pharmaceutically relevant molecules for diagnostics applications in positron emissions tomography. There is a particular emphasis on the production of new markers for neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s.

eMOOD – Novel ideas for better antidepressants Depression is a life threatening disease with high life‐time prevalence. The clinical effect of pharmacological treatment is delayed several weeks, and is only seen in up to 60 per cent of the patients. Therefore, there is a pressing need for new tools to predict treatment response and novel fast-acting drugs. Centre Director Gregers Wegener explains the idea. »In the search for new drug targets that may help point the way, we are currently exploring mechanisms underlying the actions of ketamine. The idea is to utilise ketamine as entry‐point to obtain insights into the molecular and morphological basis for a rapid and sustained antidepressant effect.«

emood.au.dk

26

Denmark is only surpassed by Switzerland and Finland A report from the Danish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Higher Education shows that Denmark is only surpassed by Switzerland and Finland in terms of the EU research funding received per capita. Danish research and innovation environments have received a total of 773 million Euros – almost DKK 10.5 million Euros per month – since the EU’s 7th framework programme for research, known as FP7, was launched. Almost DKK 1.3 million Euros has come from the European Research Council (ERC), making it the biggest source of income for Denmark among the FP7 sub-programmes.

AU and Horizon 2020 With Horizon 2020 the EU launches one of the world’s largest research programmes. Around 70 billion Euros have been allocated to investment in research and innovation for the period 2014-2020. Aarhus University’s profile is a good match for the three main research areas that are singled out in Horizon 2020: Excellent Science, Competitive Industries and Tackling Societal Challenges. Aarhus University Vice-Dean for Research Ole Steen Nielsen explains: »We are already doing really well in relation to excellent research, where AU has over a number of years received a lot of the EU funds that have been awarded in the form of ERC Grants. And when it comes to developing collaboration with business and contributing to solving societal challenges, then those are areas where we have worked intensively for a long

time at AU. And where we are ready to apply,« says Ole Steen Nielsen. »Being able to create optimal conditions for developing collaboration with business and research, which contributes to solving societal challenges, has also been a significant argument for the major administrative change process that AU has undergone,« explains Nielsen. »We have the right researchers, the right research and the right framework. We have really good chances when it comes to applying for and being awarded some of the many research funds and exciting research partnerships that are available in Horizon 2020,« says Nielsen. He also expects that during the coming years AU will be able to increase its already large share of EU funds.

27 Photo: Lars Kruse

Inside the stars – hunting the origin of the elements One of the four recipients of a Starting Grant is associate professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy Hans Otto Uldahl Fynbo. What is your area of research? My research takes place in the intersection between physics and astronomy. More specifically, in how our elements were formed through the physical processes that occur in the interior of stars and when stars explode. We already know a lot about these processes, but we are still not able to really explain how the first and lightest elements are actually formed. What does the award of a Starting Grant mean for your research? The grant means it will be possible for us to focus on some very time-consuming and complicated experiments during the next five years, which can show us what happens in connection with the formation of some of the lightest elements. This is a mystery that has remained unsolved since nuclear research in the 1950’s, and which we are now intent on solving. Department of Physics and Astronomy at AU is quite a unique place for this kind of research, because as a researcher I have access to a broad range of accelerators, where we can re-create some of the processes that take place in the interior of stars.

28

ERC Grants HAVE GONE TO Aarhus University over the years. Danish universities have received 70 in total.

ERC Grants Each year, the European Research Council (ERC) awards the prestigious ERC Grants to Europe’s absolute elite researchers, and Aarhus University does well in this context. The university is represented in 28 out of a total of 70 ERC Grants received by Danish universities over the years. In 2012, Aarhus University was awarded seven ERC Grants. Of these, no fewer than four were so-called Starting Grants, which are awarded to promising young research talents.

28

nandT Educa

Education and Talent

Aarhus University has strategic focus on solid research-based degree programmes for all students combined with supplementary academic activities and challenges for the most talented and motivated students.

29

Talent atio Knowledge, education and innovation are the leading competitive parameters in the 21st century, and here the universities play a vital role for Denmark. It is therefore essential that the universities continue to develop as education and research institutions, educate talented, innovative graduates with individual talents and competencies to take on a wide range of functions in society and, at the same time, create attractive research environments to educate and attract talented researchers who can ensure relevant research on a high level. Morten Østergaard is Minister for Science, Innovation and Higher Education and member of the Danish Parliament, the Folketing, for the Danish Social Liberal Party, Radikale Venstre. He holds an MSc in Political Science from Aarhus University.

30

Focus on teaching and learning For Aarhus University, the developing of teaching and learning environments is a high priority: the university must be able to accommodate the diverse needs and abilities of its many students in order for them to become the competent graduates society needs. Here are two examples of the development of teaching and innovative learning environments from AU.

Innovation and entrepreneurship on the curriculum Five students are standing at the Port of Aarhus sticking yellow Post-it notes onto a large map of the harbour. They’re making painstaking observations and descriptions of the harbour area’s appearance and the events that take place there in the course of a day. These are Master’s degree students from the degree programme in Experience Economy at Aarhus University, and they’ve been assigned the project of designing an improved waterfront that would provide more of the city’s inhabitants with opportunities for recreation. Teaching entrepreneurship This situation is typical of the innovative approach to teaching that characterises the Faculty of Arts of today. More and more teaching staff are including activities that take place outside the confines of the lecture theatre in their teaching. This gives students experience in applying their academic competences in ways that will begin creating value for society the moment they graduate. »We call this entrepreneurial pedagogy. Our students have to learn how to be what you might term humanistic entrepreneurs. This demands an approach to teaching that trains students in initiating innovative processes and creating original solutions,« explains Louise Fabian, who is an assistant professor of the history of ideas who teaches courses in the experience economy programme. »They need to master the academic curriculum, but they also need to learn how to relate to the world around them openly and creatively. It’s this combination of academics and innovation that characterises entrepreneurial pedagogy,« says Fabian. A new kind of knowledge worker Lene Torzen Bager is an associate professor at the Centre for Teaching Development and Digital Media. She’s done a study

of entrepreneurial pedagogy at Arts. »The entrepreneurial approach to teaching gives students new personal competences. In addition to traditional humanistic academic competences, they also develop their ability to collaborate and become more self-reflexive, as well as becoming more aware of the phases in innovative processes.« Bager explains that teaching staff are applying the entrepreneurial pedagogy approach because they want to prepare students for success in an changeable labour market. »The academic fundamentals are still at the centre, but they are augmented by concrete investigations of how to link academics to concrete societal challenges. What’s new is how the students work with their academic competences. They are given a chance to explore how they – thanks to their academic competences – can create value and meaning, and how they will be able to do this in their future professional careers,« she says. Creating deeper forms of learning According to Bager, entrepreneurial pedagogy does more than help students find practical applications for their academic competences. It can also play a positive role in helping universities rethink university pedagogy more generally - a development that is becoming more and more necessary as more and more students are admitted to advanced degree programmes. The results of her study show that teaching staff find that the entrepreneurial approach improves student motivation, performance at exams, and pass rates. »When students use theory to solve real problems, a deeper form of learning takes place. In addition, students choose the projects they want to work on themselves. In this way, they create a link between their academic competences and their personal motivation – and learning that arises out of personal motivation simply sticks better,« explains Bager.

31 Photo: Lars Kruse

»The presentations, exercises and not least the dialogue with the other course participants have significantly improved my competences as a supervisor.« Professor Dennis Ramsdahl has participated in supplementary training courses in supervising student projects at BSS.

Supplementary training for teaching staff The School of Business and Social Sciences offers a range of research-based courses in university pedagogics and didactics in Danish and English to teaching staff at all stages of their careers (student teachers, PhD students, assistant professors, postdocs,assistant professors and professors). BSS also offers training in how to use the school’s new learning management system, Blackboard. Seventeen different courses are available. Two supplementary training courses have been mandatory for associate professors and professors at BSS since 2010: a course in supervising student projects (60 hours) and a Go Online course (40-60 hours). Go Online is part of AU’s focus on integrating IT into the teaching situation. All of the courses are offered by CUL (Centre for Teaching and Learning). In 2012, about 250 of BSS’ 1000 teaching staff participated in supplementary training courses at CUL.

We are innovating to ensure the quality of our teaching AU’s School of Business and Social Sciences has introduced mandatory supplementary training for all academic staff. The result is better teaching and strong graduates. Modern universities must educate a very diverse group of students to become competent graduates able to contribute value to society. This situation demands innovative, effective teaching and student guidance. »The breadth we experience in our students’ academic and personal qualifications today means that we need to think outside the »one size fits all« model in our teaching. Modern university teaching must be based on a broad range of pedagogical and didactic approaches that accommodate students’ different ways of learning,« says Peder Østergaard, vice-dean for education at the School of Business and Social Sciences (BSS). He is one of the architects of a major continuing education initiative at

32

The breadth we experience in our students’ academic and personal qualifications today means that we need to think outside the »one size fits all« model in our teaching. Peder Østergaard, Vice-Dean

BSS, where obligatory supplementary training for all academic staff, full-time as well as part-time, has been introduced. »Go Online« and student guidance The initiative is focused on a course in supervising student projects and a so-called Go Online course aimed at helping teaching staff incorporate IT into their teaching more effectively. Both research-based courses are being offered by BSS’ Centre for Teaching and Learning (CUL). The faculty’s goal is for all academic staff members to complete both courses within the next two years. BSS also offers

teaching staff a range of additional continuing education courses through CUL. These supplementary courses have several objectives: »We are innovating primarily to ensure the quality of one of the university’s most important contributions to society – our graduates. But in a larger perspective, these initiatives are the university’s response to relentless global economic competition and society’s increased demand for capable, innovative graduates with the skills and insight necessary to maintain a high level of innovation in Denmark.«

»It has improved the quality of my supervision«

What do you think about the fact there are mandatory courses for teaching staff at BSS? I certainly don’t see any problem in mandatory course for teaching staff and supervisors. The fact of the matter is that it’s extremely difficult to give supplementary training a high priority in your planning when your schedule is already full of research, teaching and administration. Given that the university’s senior management team has evaluated these course and found them focussed, necessary and effective, I think it’s entirely natural to require staff to participate in them. 

Photo: private

How has the course contributed to the way you practise supervision? Actually, I saw myself as an excellent supervisor before I participated in the course. Though I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the course changed my perception of my abilities, it has definitely given me an occasion and a forum to reflect on my own practice. The presentations, exercises and not least dialogue with the other participants in the course have improved my competences as a supervisor significantly, and have resulted in a more effective, structured supervision process.

Professor Dennis Ramsdal Jensen from the Department of Law at the School of Business and Social Sciences, Aarhus University has taken the supplementary course on supervising student projects that is mandatory for all teaching staff at BSS.

Photo: Lars Kruse

Aarhus University invests in talent development

You don’t get to hold the knife, but you do get to assist more and more often, and with increasingly difficult tasks, over the course of the semester, so you definitely get a good understanding of what surgery is all about. Sigurd Sloth, medical student

Aarhus University, the first university in Denmark to introduce a flexible doctoral programme that allows students direct admission to a combined Master’s/PhD programme, has a long tradition for researcher talent development. AU is now building on this tradition to strengthen its investment in talent development, and is offering the most talented and motivated students supplementary academic activities at all stages of their studies. This is a broad talent strategy, in which talent development programmes are focussed on developing sought-after talent for both research and the private and public labour market.

»To my knowledge, there are no programmes like this either in Denmark or run by colleagues abroad.« »But there’s great potential for society and the university if we’re able to find the right model for developing talent in a more broadly defined sense than before.« Talent development at Bachelor’s degree level A new pilot project is aimed to give the brightest talents in physics and nanoscience more opportunities for development starting at Bachelor’s degree level. The goal of the project is to establish honours programmes with extra academic activities that will develop and enhance the students’ academic competences. Vice-dean Tom Vindbæk Madsen is one of the creators of the pilot project. He explains that honours programmes are a necessary response to the increasing size and diversity of the student body. »Education is the universities’ most important task, and will remain so. The target is for 25 per cent of school-leavers in any one year to complete a long-cycle post-secondary degree. With such a large share of students, we would impose serious limitations on the individual’s ability to develop his or her full potential if all students were forced to complete precisely the same study programme. For this reason, I think that we have to do more to give the brightest talents extra challenges.« Madsen emphasises that developing talent is no easy task. »But there’s great potential for society and the university if we’re able to find the right model for developing talent in a more broadly defined sense than before.«

Talent development at Master’s degree level The Dream Team programme gives students with a special interest in surgery a chance to begin specialising while still in medical school. »We can see that students are extremely motivated and even more interested in surgery after participating in the Dream Team programme. For our department, the programme means that the students have a role to play in the operating theatre. We have also been able to draw on their help after the Dream Team programme when we’ve been short a junior doctor to assist. That flexibility is worth its weight in gold for us,« says Mikkel Seyer-Hansen, clinical associate professor at Aarhus University and consultant at Aarhus University Hospital. Seyer-Hansen explains that complicated operations are becoming more and more commonplace. Examples include endoscopic surgery and complex cancer operations. This development, along with increasing demands with regard to patient safety and the productivity of the healthcare sector, means that better surgical training is necessary. »Previously, surgeons didn’t start operating on a systematic basis until relatively late. The demands on surgeons have increased in the meantime, which is why it’s important that the surgeons of the future begin receiving training earlier in their careers so that they can develop the necessary skills more quickly. Motivating students to choose surgery as a specialisation early is one of the tools that appears to be working,« says Seyer-Hansen. Seyer-Hansen’s colleagues at other hospitals are excited about the unorthodox Dream Team concept for medical students. »It’s a radically different way of training the students. To my knowledge, there are no programmes like this either in Denmark or run by colleagues abroad. And in fact, I’ve been contacted by a number of colleagues and students from around Denmark who are interested in the concept.«

35 Photo: Lars Kruse

The Dream Team programme • A Dream Team is selected on the basis of a week-long course for up to twenty-four students. • The course introduces the student to laparoscopic surgery, and they are tested at the end of the week. • Eight students are invited to join the Dream Team programme, which takes place in the eighth semester. • The students on the team are assigned to an experienced surgeon and participate in operations in his or her department at least once a week.

Sigurd Sloth assists experienced surgeons with an operation on a uterus as part of his Dream Team programme.

»This gives them a chance to become even better at their chosen subject..« Talent development at doctoral level Particularly talented students don’t have to complete their Master’s degree before starting a PhD programme. The flexible PhD programme – an option Aarhus University was the first to offer in Denmark – allows students to enrol in a PhD programme after either three or four years of university study. The so-called 3+5 and 4+4 schemes are a great success, according to Vice-Dean Jes Madsen from the Faculty of Science and Technology. »The flexible PhD programmes mean that PhD students have more coherence in their study programmes. You work on your PhD project while you’re finishing your Bachelor’s or Master’s,

434

students are enrolled in the flexible PhD programme at Aarhus University out of a total of 1,900 PhD students.

and in this way you experience your studies as a continual progression with a focus on research. Instead of the traditional Master’s thesis, you write a report about the research project you’re working on,« he explains. All students are free to apply to the flexible PhD programmes, just as some students are encouraged to apply. »If you know that you want to do research, it’s a major advantage to be able to get started as early as possible. This also means that students figure out where their particular interests lie quickly, and it gives them a chance to become even better at their chosen subject.«

Awards: 2013 2011 2010 2010 2009 2008 2008 2007

Young Elite Researcher, Sapere Aude (step 1), Danish Agency for Science, Technology and Innovation PhD Day, Presentation Award, Aarhus University The EliteForsk Travel Scholarship, the Danish Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Fogh-Nielsen Prize, Faculty of Health Science, Aarhus University Student Award, the Danish Society of Osteoarthritis and Rheumatism ISSLS Prize winner, Basic Science Best Paper Award: Danish Orthopaedic Society (co-author and supervisor) Best Paper Award: Danish Orthopaedic Society

Name: Sashka Dimova Age: 27 Career: PhD student at the Department of Economics and Business Research area: Labour market policy Sashka Dimova’s research concerns how better evaluations of labour market programmes can pave the way for better design of labour market policies. Awards: 2010-2011 Awarded OeAD scholarship to undertake Master ‘s degree studies at the University of Vienna 2010 UNESCO grant for Euro Science Open Forum 2010 Research Fellowship Grant to design and carry out data analysis for the Educational Support programme sponsored by the Open Society Institute 2009-2011 Awarded Open Society Foundation fellowship to take an MSc in economics, Central European University 2006-2009 Awarded merit scholarship to the American University in Bulgaria

Photo: Lise Balsby

Name: Casper Bindzus Foldager Age: 29 Career: PhD in 2012. Presently assistant professor at the Department of Clinical Medicine and Orthopaedic Surgery, Aarhus University Research area: Orthopaedic surgery. Casper Bindzus Foldager does research in how to regenerate damaged articular cartilage. Damage to articular cartilage is typically caused by by sports injuries.

37

»The doors are always open« Casper Bindzus Foldager got his first taste of research back in medical school. He was hooked immediately. Since then, he’s gone on to a PhD degree, an assistant professorship, a stay at Harvard University – and innumerable academic honours. How did you discover that you wanted to be a scientist? After the fifth semester of my medical studies, I decided that I was ready for new challenges. I asked one of my professors whether there were any research projects I might be able to assist on. He immediately referred me to a researcher who was working on a good project I could participate in. What was that like? It was really exciting. I did animal testing and collaborated with the other scientists, and I gradually discovered how exciting research is. I realised that I just couldn’t do without scientific research, and so I decided to do a PhD. I contacted the head of the sports injury clinic, as sport has always interested me, and we got a project started on the regeneration of articular cartilage.

What has helped you on your path to a career as a scientist? At Aarhus University, you are never very far from the people who know the most. If you have energy and an inquiring mind, you can easily come in contact with the people who can help you further. Their doors are always open, and the professors are receptive and accessible. As a young scientist, you have a lot of ideas, and assessing which idea is most promising can be difficult. This is something senior researchers can help clarify. You spent a longer period of study at Harvard University while working on your PhD project. What has that experience meant for you? More than I ever could have imagined. It was very exciting to see how things are done at another university, and I came in contact with some of best researchers in my field. I’m still working with them to this very day.

»Opportunities to travel« Sashka Dimova comes from Macedonia and has studied in five different countries. She is currently working on her PhD degree at Aarhus University – and is happy with the informal environment and the good opportunities to visit universities in other countries. How did you discover that you wanted to be a scientist? I was given the opportunity to participate in a research project while I was doing my Master’s degree in Budapest. I discovered that you have considerable freedom as a researcher - you can move beyond previously defined fields of inquiry areas and go your own way. That appealed to me a great deal, and I knew that I would go on to do a PhD. What brought you to at Aarhus University? I investigated the universities that have good PhD programmes in labour market policy, and Aarhus University was one of them. I came to an interview and had opportunity to experience the university, and I got a really good impression. People are very friendly and accommodating, and the environment is informal.

I decided quite quickly that I would write my PhD at Aarhus University. What does studying at at Aarhus University mean for you? PhD students at Aarhus University are very privileged. The professors see us as their colleagues, and they are very willing to engage in dialogue. I am invited to exciting seminars, I get to participate in the researchers’ extensive professional networks around the world, and I get help to travel and visit the best universities within my field. In the 2013 autumn semester, I will be studying at MIT, and I’m really looking forward to it. International experiences open up a lot of opportunities and give you new inspiration for your research.

C884

38 C886

His research interests are discrete and computational geometry, the design and analysis of algorithms, and combinatorics. »I am very happy that Aarhus University was able to offer me a position with interesting perspectives for the future. It made it possible for me and my wife to come here. I know the research team at MADALGO from my time as a postdoc at AU and I knew that they have a very good group chemistry and they offer a great research potential. So when AU offered me this kind of employment I did not hesitate and accepted the offer«.

Photo: Roar Lava Paaske

Peyman Afshani 32 years old and from Iran

Peyman Afshani took his degree in computer science at the Sharif University of Technology in Tehran in Iran. He also holds a PhD from Waterloo University in Canada and has complete two postdocs: first at MADALGO, Aarhus University and subsequently at Waterloo University. Thanks to a new tenure track position, he’s now back at Aarhus University.

39

C897

The competition for the best researchers Aarhus University offers attractive career paths to recruit promising research talents. Universities are competing intensely to attract and retain the very best researchers from all over the world. AU’s response is a focussed effort to identify both Danish and international research talents early in their careers and to offer them attractive career opportunities. In fields such as computer science, the competition to attract the most talented junior researchers is particularly strong. AU’s IT research centre MADALGO has just recruited a promising Iranian computer scientist with a Canadian degree to a tenure track position. »He is an incredibly brilliant researcher we really wanted to have with us here in Aarhus. He was here as a postdoc for two years, but moved back to Canada, where his career opportunities were better at that point. Now we’ve been able to offer him a tenure track position, and fortunately, it’s so attractive that he’s come back,« explains Professor Lars Arge, director of MADALGO. Guaranteed tenure The tenure track model is widespread in North America. A tenured position is a permanent senior academic position

achieved after a probationary period in a junior position, typically between five to eight years. Before being awarded tenure, candidates are subject to a detailed international performance review in order to ensure that they are qualified. The tenure system thus gives researchers a guarantee of a long-term affiliation with a university, which reduces the risk in taking a position at an institution that might lie halfway around the world. »Before we had this model, recruiting talent was very difficult. In several cases, I’ve witnessed researchers turning down exciting job offers from us because we weren’t able to guarantee them a permanent position in the long term. Even though they themselves would been willing to take a chance and move here in any case, it was too much to ask of the rest of their families,« explains Lars Arge. Arge is therefore convinced that universities have a special responsibility towards the spouses of international researchers. »In the States, universities find work for accompanying spouses. I think that this is how it should be here as well. In this particular case, the Iranian researcher’s wife found work here as well, fortunately. That has definitely been decisive for his decision to stay at AU,« explains Arge.

Photo: Colourbox

Educated for the world Aarhus University is acutely aware of the need to develop degree programmes that answer to society’s needs. AU has had great success in drawing on the entire range of the subjects offered to create such degree programmes. The popular interdisciplinary programme in International Studies is just one example. International Studies provides graduates with an understanding of global agendas and prepares them for careers in international businesses and political organisations.

In this age of globalisation, knowledge of the legal and economic frameworks that govern one’s own country is not enough. We are all part of a larger context influenced by international conditions in such areas as law and economic policy. This insight is at the centre of the Master’s degree programme in International Studies, a popular interdisciplinary programme open to students with a humanities or social sciences Bachelor’s degree. The programme includes courses in subjects such as international political economy (IPE), global rights and justice, and modern global history, and prepares students for careers in international and political organisations, for example working

112

with strategy or CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) in both Danish and international businesses. »The majority of our graduates get jobs. There’s simply a demand for people with their competencies,« explains Associate Professor Hagen Schulz-Forber, director of studies for the programme. He describes the International Studies programme as a response to the increasing globalisation of the labour market. Today, professionals must increasingly be able to work in interdisciplinary contexts with an international dimension. The programme thus draws on the expertise of a wide range of the university’s academic staff from a range of fields.

Master’s degree programmes are offered by Aarhus University, WHICH DRAWS ON THE ENTIRE WIDE RANGE OF SUBJECTS IT OFFERS TO DEVELOP NEW DEGREE PROGRAMMES THAT MEET SOCIETY’S NEEDS.

41

Responsible for Grundfos’ code of conduct International Studies paved the way to one student’s dream job at Grundfos

Experiencing the international During the programme, students gain hands-on experience with international project management, and get a chance to test the theories they learn in practice by doing a work placement. The study environment is international as well: half of the students are Danish, and half of the students are international. »This means that the students always have the international perspective in whatever they do. Therefore, they are much better prepared to work in an international context later on. Quite simply, they know how to operate in the world,« explains Schulz-Forberg.

The International Studies programme accepts 60 students a year. There were 215 applicants to the programme last year.

For Marie Enemark Olsen, there’s no doubt about it: her Master’s degree in international studies provided her with just the right competences for her position at Grundfos, the world’s largest producer of pumps. Her title is »business ethics consultant«, which means that she is responsible for developing and implementing the ethical principals that are to govern all of Grundfos’ divisions in 50 countries across the globe. »My degree gave me the qualifications I need to work in an interdisciplinary, international context. In my job, I have contact with many different countries, and my work involves elements of law, politics, finance, culture and organisation – all of which are subjects the International Studies programme covers. I also do a lot of work with project management, something the programme also focusses on,« she explains. Marie Enemark Olsen’s first major project at Grundfos was to develop a code of conduct that would be relevant and understandable for the company’s employees all over the world. Before she was hired, the company’s code of conduct had primarily been based on legal principles. Marie Enemark Olsen shifted focus to anchoring the ethical principles in local cultures in order to make them meaningful and understandable for the company’s employees. »Of course, establishing the overarching global ethical principles is part of my job. But understanding the culture of the different countries is at least as important, to ensure that local interpretations and implementations of the principles can be made. To do this, I draw heavily on the international dimension of my degree,« says Marie Enemark Olsen.

In my job, I have contact with many different countries, and my work involves elements of law, politics, finance, culture and organisation – all of which are subjects the International Studies programme covers. Marie Enemark Olsen, Business Ethics Consultant, Grundfos

42

Inter ional tion Internationalisation

Aarhus University has strategic focus on internationalisation of its education and research environments contribute to the high concentration and mobility of talent at all levels.

43

rnat lisa It is well established that the world has become more and more economically and politically globalised. The universities cannot ignore these developments. If they are to contribute with graduates and researchers who understand and identify with these developments, the universities must further collaboration with universities and research environments in other countries. This is the only way to enhance the Danish universities’ »competitive position« with a view to attracting foreign talents and retaining the Danish – preferably after they have completed part of their training abroad. In other words, greater mobility will be a key concept in the research and educational environments of the future. Ulrik Federspiel is Vice President for Global Affairs in the Danish energy and environment company Haldor Topsøe A/S. During his long carrier, Ulrik Federspiel has been Permanent State Secretary for Foreign Affairs and also Permanent State Secretary for the Prime Minister’s Office, which also included serving as Secretary to Her Majesty the Queen in the Council of Ministers. In 1997 Ulrik Federspiel served as Ambassador to Ireland and in 2000 as Ambassador to the United States of America. Since 2001, he has been an Honorary Trustee of the Crown Prince Frederik Fund at Harvard University. In 2011, he was appointed distinguished alumnus of Aarhus School of Business and Social Sciences, from which he has a Master’s degree in Political Science.

44

AU gives eminent researchers from all over the world free rein They don’t just come from all over the world, but from all corners of the world of ideas. With the new Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS), Aarhus University is offering excellent researchers from all over the world and a wide range of fields the freedom to devote themselves to their work in an attractive setting.

»AIAS gives me time. A completely different kind of time than we’re used to in our daily academic work with teaching, administrative tasks, meetings and such. Here, I have time for research, for in-depth study and for exciting conversations with colleagues. This has a definite effect on the atmosphere here at AIAS. The researchers who’ve moved in are a happy, excited flock,« says Dr Mattingly. She is a professor of anthropology and recipient of the three-year Dale T. Mortensen senior fellowship at AIAS.

Photo: Lise Balsby

Cheryl Mattingly, Dale T. Mortensen Senior Fellow

Cheryl Mattingly, professor of anthropology at the University of Southern California in the United States. She has won several awards and academic awards for her work, most recently the Stirling Book Prize for her book The Paradox of Hope: Journeys through a Clinical Borderland.

Photo: Lise Balsby

AIAS opened on 13 June 2013 in a newly renovated facility in the heart of the University Park. Here, up to 35 so-called fellows will have the freedom to devote themselves to their research for a period of several years.

AIAS is the first institution of its kind in Denmark. In establishing AIAS, Aarhus University was inspired by the example of analogous institutions abroad, such as the Institute for Advanced Study in the US, which has close links with Princeton University. »AIAS is a centre for excellence. A place for researchers at the very highest level. Researcher are selected exclusively on the basis of their qualifications. We recruit the best, and then they can pursue their research interests as they see fit,« explains Morten Kyndrup, director of AIAS. Long-term investment For Aarhus University, AIAS is a long-term investment that will provide returns in the form of strong international relationships and networks for many years to come.

»AIAS is a fantastic opportunity. We’re given the best possible working conditions and have the time and freedom to concentrate on our research. The facilities and the support from the staff have been just fantastic and a lot of effort is being put into getting us settled and making us part of not just AIAS but the entire university and the city. It’s an incredibly exciting place to be, with excellent researchers from many different fields,« says Joe Soss, who is a political scientist and professor at the University of Minnesota, USA.

The great world In Kyndrup’s view, AIAS will become a cornerstone of AU’s internationalisation strategy.

Photo: Lise Balsby

Joe Soss, Dale T. Mortensen Senior Fellow

»AIAS will help place Aarhus University on the mental map of research – as a place that emphasises the importance of independent basic research, and where researchers of the highest international standard have the opportunity to work under such favourable conditions that they’ll be able to take decisive steps forward in their research. Later on, of course, they will remember that those steps were taken at Aarhus University. But what AIAS is ultimately about is Aarhus University’s desire to encourage the production of strong research results – both in Denmark and in an international perspective,« says Kyndrup.

Joe Soss is a political scientist and professor at the University of Minnesota in the United States. He is one of the USA’s leading authorities on inequality and poverty and the recipient of the Harrington Book Award and the Oliver Cromwell Cox Award for his latest book Disciplining the Poor: Neoliberal Paternalism and the Persistent Power of Race.

46

»Our fellows bring the great world into Aarhus University - and when they leave again, they take Aarhus University out into the great world with them,« he says. Kyndrup explains that affiliated researchers are encouraged to organise lectures, workshops and symposiums to bring their international colleagues to Aarhus. AIAS fellows are also encouraged to arrange lectures in collaboration with AU researchers. »In this way, we forge concrete connections between AU and our fellows that we hope the researchers will be able to build on,« says Kyndrup. Why Aarhus? In addition to freedom of research, AIAS offers its research fellows access to facilities of an unusually high standard. »Aarhus is obviously not Paris, and even though Aarhus University is doing very well internationally and has become quite a sizeable institution, we can’t yet compare ourselves with Cambridge or Harvard. But we can point to the fact that we have the courage to launch major new initiatives. What we’ve achieved with AIAS is attractive by any measure, even in comparison with similar institutes abroad,« says Kyndrup. A little piece of the classical university Freedom to pursue their research without other commitments is a rarity for researchers in Denmark and abroad. The modern university has evolved into a mass university, and to a great extent, research activities are based on external grants, which involves applying for funding for a project considered useful or relevant in the eyes of others. As Kyndrup puts it, the university has become instrumentalised. »AIAS is not an attempt to depart from this »main road« at the universities, but rather to demonstrate that there’s also room for something else. With AIAS, we’ve created a little piece of the classical university in the middle of the instrumental mass university. Not as an alternative, but in order to demonstrate that Aarhus University can and will include both.«

»The thought of getting to sit under the same roof with other talented researchers from all over the world and from many different fields is what I found particularly attractive. As a natural scientist, you can easily become very specialised and bury yourself in your own little area of expertise. In addition to making important progress in my own research, I hope that my fellowship at AIAS will also broaden my horizons and give me a better understanding of how my particular discipline can be applied and made relevant to other researcher’s fields, and vice versa,« says Lund.

AIAS opened on 13 June 2013 in a newly renovated facility in the University Park, the central AU campus. The institute will offer up to thirty-five fellows at a time the freedom to devote themselves to their research for a terms of between one and three years. AIAS does not interfere in the content, purpose, aims and method of the research performed at the institute. The only requirement researchers must live up to is excellence. AIAS stipends for Danish and foreign researchers are financed by Aarhus University and the Aarhus University Research Foundation. AIAS distinguishes between internal and external fellows. Internal fellows are researchers who are already affiliated with Aarhus University. Their stipends are called Jens Christian Skou Fellowships in honour of Aarhus University’s first Nobel Prize Laureate, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2007. External fellows are researchers without a prior affiliation with Aarhus University. These researchers typically come from abroad. Their stipends are called Dale T. Mortensen Fellowships in honour of the American professor of economics who was awarded the 2010 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences. Mortensen has a close collaboration with AU researchers in the field of labour market economics and has held a Niels Bohr Visiting Professorship at AU. aias.au.dk

Photo: Lise Balsby

Marie Braad Lund, Dale T. Mortensen Junior Fellow

ABOUT AIAS

Marie Braad Lund is a biologist. Her AIAS fellowship brings her home to Aarhus University, where she took her PhD degree in 2009. Since 2010, she has been affiliated with Stanford University as a post doc in a position partly financed by a grant from the Carlsberg Foundation. Marie Braad Lund’s research focus is symbioses and their evolutionary development over time.

International collaboration has long been an integrated part of AU’s activities. This has earned the University a 33rd position on the ranking of universities’ degree of international collaboration.

47

Aarhus University’s international collaboration includes China, where AU has been expanding its so-called deep partnership with three of China’s leading universities - the universities of Peking, Tsinghua and Fudan - for some time. In addition, with Arctic Research Centre, the AU plays a central role in the international collaboration between the Arctic nations. Here are three examples of AU’s expansion of its international collaboration.

Unique opportunity to do research in India Thanks to support from Novozymes and the Henning Holck-Larsen Foundation, six Danish and six Indian researchers will contribute to strengthening cultural and academic ties between the two countries through a new research staff exchange programme.

33

AARHUS UNIVERSITY’S PLACEMENT ON THE 2013 LEIDEN RANKING WITH REGARD TO INVOLVEMENT IN INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION

»The goal is to create deep, long-term working relationships that give Indian and Danish researchers insight into each other’s research environments in the field of biotechnology,« explains Ulla Gjørling, head of the International Centre at Aarhus University. Starting in 2013, a seven-year grant of 563,117 Euros from Novozymes and the Henning Holck-Larsen Foundation will allow support research staff exchange between Denmark and India. Six Danish researchers will have the chance to work at one of four Indian universities, while AU will host six Indian researchers. »Danish researchers can visit one of the best Indian universities, an institution we are already collaborating with, and this was an important condition for Novozymes and the Henning Holck-Larsen Foundation to get involved in the project,« says Gjørling, who is particularly pleased that the project will last for seven years, as this will provide a solid foundation for the research collaboration between Indians and Danes. Both Aarhus University and the Indian universities involved in the project have strong biotech programmes, and the goal of the research exchange programme is - in addition to giving the researchers an opportunity to gain new professional and personal competences – to strength the cultural ties between the two countries. The first exchange agreements are already in place. PhD students are eligible for funding for a stay of nine to fifteen months, while postdocs and senior researchers are expected to spend between three and nine months in either India or Denmark. »While we don’t expect that more senior and more established researchers will have time for extended stays, but on the other hand, it’s important for Novozymes and the Henning-Holck Larsen Foundation that the term of research abroad is long enough for relationships to be developed,« explains Gjørling.

48

AU aids universities in developing countries Danida has granted 8 million Euros to strengthening a number of universities in developing countries through the project Building Stronger Universities (BSU). Aarhus University is coordinating two of the project’s four platforms.

»Formerly, aid to universities in developing countries consisted primarily of funding for building laboratories or financial support of specific research projects. Now we’re taking a different path, and are also providing support for the development of the universities’ organisational competences in the areas of research, teaching and research dissemination: brainware instead of hardware,« explains Jørgen E Olesen, who is a professor at the Department of Agroecology at Aarhus University and chairman of the Platform on Environment and Climate, one of the four platforms of the BSU project, which is funded by Danida. The project supports universities in Ghana, Kenja, Tanzania, Uganda and Nepal, and all eight Danish universities are contributing their expertise to the four platforms. Two of these platforms – Environment and Climate and Stablity, Democracy and Rights – are being coordinated by Aarhus University. »For example, we teach them how to organise their research projects so that available funds are spent wisely, and so that their results are publishable in recognised international journals,« explains Olesen. The Danish partners are also attempting to introduce new teaching methods in the form of problem-based instruction, as opposed to the unidirectional blackboard teaching methods that dominate the universities involved in the project. At present, the challenge for many universities in developing countries is that many of their most qualified professors are nearing retirement, and there is a shortage of qualified replacements. Therefore, assisting these universities in creating professional graduate schools with adequate supervision of doctoral projects is another important goal of the project. This is absolutely necessary to ensure the future of teaching and research at these institutions. The project has been in progress for a year, and getting the very different cultures of the north and south to work together has been no easy task, according to Olesen. »We have spent a lot of time and energy on identifying precisely what problems the universities of the south are facing – and on how we northern universities can best contribute. We find that many of the universities in the south are using BSU very proactively in order to learn better ways of organising research and teaching. But developing this collaboration from the ground up is by no means an easy job.«

49

AU engineers establish partnership with Indonesian university The Aarhus University School of Engineering has established a close collaboration with the newly established Universitas Bakrie in Indonesia. The groundwork for the new partnership was laid in the aftermath of the 2004 tsunami. After the devastation caused by the tsunami in 2004 to vulnerable coastal areas of Indonesia, the obvious question was raised: How do we make sure this doesn’t happen again? The Bakrie Group, an Indonesian industrial conglomerate with 70,000 employees, decided to contribute to finding a solution by establishing a private university in 2009. In the long term, the goal is to improve the population’s safety by improving education in crucial subjects such as road construction, environment, energy, architecture, communication and management. The new Universitas Bakrie was interested in establishing international partnerships, and with the help of the Danish firm Danish Energy Management, the university came into contact with the Aarhus University School of Engineering. The Danes will contribute to establishing a faculty of engineering in Indonesia, and research and business collaboration will most likely follow. »Right now we’re in the preparatory stage, trying to figure out how joint research projects can be designed, and how we can coordinate our approaches to learning,« explains Erik Kristian-

sen, who is director of the Centre for Industrial Cooperation at the Aarhus University School of Engineering. The partnership will also involve creating possibilities for work placement. When the agreement is fully in place, Kristiansen expects that fifth-semester Danish engineering students will have the option of doing a work placement in a Danish engineering firm that operates in Indonesia and to take courses at Universitas Bakrie. »There’s a need for both building and teaching in Indonesia. That’s why I see this as a unique opportunity to roll out a project that’s exciting both for industry and the educational sector,« explains Kristiansen, who also thinks joint summer school programmes would be a good idea. The Danish-Indonesian summer school could offer courses on energy, water systems and well drilling. The project is supported by Danida.

Aarhus University and University of Gothenburg arrange a summer school – and in the long term a Master’s degree programme – for international students, who wish to learn more about the Scandinavian model’s qualities and challenges.

Three week Summer School – The Scandinavian Experience – in Aarhus and Gothenburg The Summer School had 29 participants – including 16 Chinese – and was held in July/August 2013. First week/Aarhus: Scandinavian history, the Scandinavian model and Scandinavia’s relationship with the international community - in particular the EU. Second week/Aarhus: Focus on the Scandinavian welfare state. Third week/Gothenburg: Focus on political systems in Scandinavia.

Photo: Anders Trærup

The Chinese want TO UNDERSTAND the Scandinavian model

51

»Why do you have to travel to Australia if you want to study the Scandinavian model?« That was the thoughtprovoking question from representatives of Peking University at a meeting with partners from Aarhus University a while ago. The Danes decided to do something about the paradox that their Chinese partners pointed to: there are no courses where you can study the Scandinavian model at home in Scandinavia. Initially, AU and the University of Gothenburg took the initiative to, offer a three-week summer school course

entitled the Scandinavian Experience. The first was held in July 2013 and 16 of the 29 participants came from Peking University. »At the moment the Chinese are discussing how their society should develop, and in connection with this, they are also looking into the welfare models that we are known for in Scandinavia,« explains Thorsten Borring Olesen, professor of history at Aarhus University, who is both one of the lecturers and organisers of the summer school. The summer school is only the first step towards being able to offer in-depth studies of the Scandinavian model. »Right now we hope to get approval for a new Master’s degree programme in Scandinavian culture and society, which will look more broadly at the Scandinavian social model,« says Olesen. The summer school and the Master’s degree programme target both Scandinavian students planning to travel abroad and communicate knowledge about the Scandinavian model, and international students, who wish to take knowledge about the model home to their own society. »Out initiative is nicely in tune with the growing export of welfare institutions, which is taking place not just to China but also to other countries – such as Brazil, for example,« says Olesen.

AU Summer University A taste of Aarhus University Aarhus University’s Summer University is an important element in AU’s overall focus on internationalisation of both the research and study environment at AU. AU Summer University provides international students with a »taste« of Aarhus University that can inspire them to spend time studying or doing a PhD programme at AU at a later date. It also creates »AU ambassadors« at foreign universities when international students return home with good experiences from a summer course at AU. The Summer University also attracts foreign lecturers, who with their external core competences help expand the course programme. The summer courses give the foreign lecturers a relationship to AU and provide an opportunity to develop collaboration with AU researchers. In 2013, 56 of the 57 summer courses were held in English. Of the around 1,350 students who take a summer course at Aarhus University, 300 are international students.

Photos: Roar Lava Paaske

Owen Cao, third-year physics student at Peking University

Joanna Ong, fourth-year psychology student at National University of Singapore

Why have you chosen to take the Scandinavian Experience course at AU Summer University? »I wanted an overseas experience and thought the course on the Scandinavian social model had some exciting subjects. A model I would like to know more about and which China maybe can learn from.«

Why have you chosen to take the Scandinavian Experience course at AU Summer University? »I have heard a lot of good things about Denmark and the Danish society, which is much different from Singapore, where I come from. I really want to learn about the Scandinavian welfare systems, which I believe Singapore can learn from.«

How was it? »Summer School in Aarhus has been a really good experience. It is a beautiful city and the air is clean. And all the people I have met have been very friendly and hospitable.«

How has it been? »Excellent. The lecturers were good and friendly. And I really like Aarhus. It is a nice and attractive city. Especially ARoS, the art museum.«

52 Photos: Anders Trærup

International study environment at AU International students increasingly leaving their mark on Aarhus University. In the heart of the University Park and close to the busy life of the city. For the past few years, Danish and international students and researchers have been able to join in the vibrant international environment in the Dale T. Mortensen building. The building is named after the University’s second Nobel Laureate, the economist Dale T. Mortensen. For

5,022

many international students and staff the building is the place where they first meet Aarhus University at the International Centre’s (IC) professional reception. IC helps them settle into the new surroundings, among other things with the assignment of housing - perhaps in one of the 30 dwellings which are an integrated part of the PhD house that is also located in the Dale T. Mortensen building. A PhD activities group arranges social

The number of international students at Aarhus University

53

The café is the social hub of the international environment in the Dale T. Mortensen building.

events, which range from bike rides to beer tasting. The building is also the centre of numerous interdisciplinary events and conferences for Danish and international students and researchers and thereby acts as an international meeting place. Students, staff and researchers with different languages and nationalities gather in the cosy café environment of the adja-

cent Dale’s Café. The Dale T. Mortensen building is one of the initiatives that will strengthen Aarhus University’s position as a leading international university with a dynamic and lively environment for international students and research talent.

103

480

different nationalities are represented at Aarhus University

au.dk/ic

the Number of foreign PhD students

54

Research without borders: space medicine International collaboration is crucial for Professor Daniela Grimm’s research. Researchers from countries including Germany, China and the USA are involved in her research in space medicine, which is relevant for cancer research. Much of the e-mail correspondence is in German, the PhD students are from Germany, Ukraine, China and Pakistan, knowledge is exchanged with researchers in Belgium, Italy and Switzerland, and the next experiment takes place in space with the launch of an American spacecraft. For German Daniela Grimm, collaboration with people from the whole world is not only the most natural thing in the world – it is also necessary for her to carry out research in the field of space medicine. A field that studies how human cells are affected by weightlessness. For Daniela Grimm this means that she needs to ensure that the cells are on board when spacecraft are launched into space. Most recently with cancer cells on board a spacecraft launched in China as part of the German-Chinese Shenzhou-8i space mission in 2011. The experiment required a coordinated effort by a number of research teams, private companies and government agencies and institutions in various countries. The draw of interesting research Daniela Grimm’s long-standing international work contributed to her coming to Aarhus University in 2008. She was subsequently appointed professor after conducting research in cardiovascular pharmacology over a number of years at German universities and university hospitals. »What drew me to Aarhus

77

nationalities are represented in the research group at Aarhus University

University was the research. From international conferences I knew a number of the researchers from Department of Biomedicine, as I work in the same area. And they were people I wanted to work with. In 2007 I read about their new research results in Nature and when, at the same time, a position was advertised within my area, I applied,« says Daniela Grimm, who also visited Aarhus before applying – and liked what she saw. The switch from a university hospital in Berlin to Aarhus University was seamless. »The research environments are in many ways similar, so it was easy to carry on my work here. Plus, the university’s location on campus has the advantage of making it easy to find experts, as we know one another.« No research without international collaboration From her office in the University Park in Aarhus, Daniela Grimm continues her work with both Danish and international researchers. »I could not conduct research in space medicine without working internationally. Partly because we can only get access to space flights in other countries, and partly because it is extremely important that we participate in the international conferences where we meet experts and find new partners. It is vital for the research that we find one another and exchange knowledge.«

55 Photo: private

Space medicine Space medicine emerged as a field of research after it had been established that human cells change behaviour when there is no gravity. Research into the medical and physiological aspects of space medicine is also of relevance for what happens on Earth. One area of Daniela Grimm’s research studies how cancer cells react in weightlessness, which can be of importance for cancer research. Studies of the cells are carried out via space flights or simulated weightlessness achieved in so-called parabolic flights. The next experiment in space is planned for the end of 2013. Danish cancer cells will be sent to the International Space Station, ISS, with a spacecraft from the US. The experiment is a collaboration between Daniela Grimm’s German working group from Otto von Guericke University Magdeburg and a small group of researchers and PhD students affiliated to Aarhus University. The project is financed is by the German space organisation DLR, among others, and is carried out in collaboration with NASA.

It would not be possible for me to carry out research in space medicine without working internationally. Daniela Grimm, space medicine researcher

Changes at the top of the world Aarhus University’s interdisciplinary Arctic Research Centre, which is involved in important international research partnerships, plays a central role in understanding the major environmental changes taking place in the Arctic and in relation to the crucial decisions the societies of the Arctic are facing. »We’re talking about changes that affect the entire globe and the lives of people for many generations to come, so naturally, we’re deeply engaged in the developments in the Arctic – both as scientists and as people. And I also believe that we can make a positive contribution to developments in the Arctic through this extensive research.« There’s no mistaking the message of Professor Søren Rysgaard, director of Aarhus University’s interdisciplinary Arctic Research Centre. Massive changes are taking place in the Arctic, and research must contribute to steering these developments in the right direction. And there’s no time to waste. Climate changes are taking place twice as rapidly in the Arctic than the rest of the

Photo: Fernando Ugarte/ARC-PIC.COM

58

chars pcsp

serf

CEOS

churchill marine observatory

CCIN GCRC

kobbefjord

Station Nord zackenberg / daneborg

ARC

At the Arctic Research Centre (ARC), knowledge from various fields of research is fused together as more than 100 researchers take part in the centre’s activities. Cooperation serves to ensure that knowledge gained through monitoring programmes is used in conjunction with basic as well as strategic research from a range of fields. Joint field campaigns are essential at the ARC and researchers have access to a series of field stations and research vessels in the Arctic regions. Field campaigns strengthen cooperation as specialists from various fields join forces to explore specific focus areas. In 2013, researchers are exploring the areas surrounding the town of Nuuk in Western Greenland. In 2014, Northeast Greenland will be the primary research area, in 2015 the centre will be studying the unexplored Arctic Ocean in depth, in 2016 Hudson Bay will be explored and in 2017 Baffin Bay, which separates Canada and Greenland, will be studied. The Arctic is an international territory and ARC participates in extensive research collaboration in the context of the Arctic Science Partnership to ensure coherent research and training efforts in relation to Arctic issues. The partnership was launched in 2012 when Aarhus University, the University of Manitoba, Canada, and the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources signed a collaboration agreement to align the efforts of 350 researchers with Arctic expertise by sharing research questions, facilities and logistics. ARC: arctic.au.dk Arctic Science Partnership: asp-net.org

planet, creating radical change for animals, plants and people, explains Rysgaard. »The consequences of climate change are extremely dramatic and clear in the Arctic. But they are also the result of extremely complex presses that are deeply interrelated. Therefore, if we want to understand what’s happening in the Arctic, cooperation across many scientific fields is necessary.« One hundred researchers from all four main academic areas at Aarhus University are affiliated with the Arctic Research Centre. In addition to its own extensive research activities, the centre is also a participant in a major international research partnership with research institutions from the other Arctic nations which brings together more than 350 scientists with expertise in Arctic conditions. Important decisions, insufficient data The major changes taking place in the region mean that Arctic communities are facing important decisions - decisions that will have a major impact on the future of the Arctic, explains Rysgaard.

»But we simply don’t know enough. The scientific evidence that forms the basis for these decisions is much too narrow and insufficient,« he says. One illustration of this dilemma is the opening up of permanent sea lanes in the Arctic Ocean: climate change means that the Arctic’s summer sea ice is rapidly disappearing. Similarly, it is also becoming possible to start mining operations to extract the riches formerly hidden under the Greenland Ice Sheet. Both developments bring with them the risk of significant increases in pollution. »We know far too little about how this pollution will affect ecosystems and how we best reduce its damaging effects. Among other things, this requires an understanding of where ecosystems are most vulnerable, and how the ocean currents around Greenland behave. We don’t even know how deep the ocean is in many places.« Producing the knowledge needed to make wise decisions about future development in the region is a central mission of the research performed at the Arctic Research Centre.

Photo: Carsten Egevang/ARC-PIC.COM

The Arctic Ocean is a gigantic CO2 pump When the Arctic Ocean freezes over, salts, oxygen and carbon dioxide are trapped in a heavy layer of salt that precipitates out of the lattice structure of the ice and sinks to lower depths. When the ice melts again, there is a deficit of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the fresh meltwater, and this makes the ocean function like a gigantic pump that sucks large amounts of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. Though the precise significance of this newly discovered carbon dioxide pump in relation to climate

change hasn’t been determined yet, the evidence indicates that it plays a central role in the ocean’s ability to offset the increasing concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. At the Arctic Research Centre, scientists are working to understand the extremely complex chemical and physical processes that take place when sea ice forms and which have an important influence on how the »ice pump« works.

60 Photo: iStockphoto

Climate change at the top of the food chain The future looks dismal for the polar bear. Researchers fear that about 60 per cent of the current population will have disappeared by 2050. At the Arctic Research Centre, scientists are investigating how environmental toxins and climate change affect Arctic predators. Polar bears are a special focus. »Polar bears are brilliant ambassadors for climate change because they’re at the top of the food chain. By taking samples from polar bears, we can see how changes in transfer of energy and environmental toxins take place throughout the food chain,« explains biology professor Rune Dietz.

Researchers can trace these changes all the way from the first links in the Arctic food chain, where environmental toxins get introduced up to top predators – including humans. »This gives us important insights into how humans are affected by the accumulation of environmental toxins and how infectious diseases are transmitted through the food chain. We can also gauge the extent of the effects of environmentally harmful substances on large predators such as polar bears, whales and seals and their future in the Arctic region.«

61 Photo: Lars Witting/ARC-PIC.COM

A threat to plants and animals The plants and animals of the Arctic have adapted to life under the extreme climatic conditions at the top of the world. Climate change is a threat to these species. In the coming years, the Arctic Research Centre will coordinate international monitoring of biodiversity in the Arctic in order to gain a clearer understanding of the development of the indigenous flora and fauna and the threats facing them.

Photo: Carsten Egevang/ARC-PIC.COM

The lemming The lemming is a key species in the Arctic. The lemming is key prey for a number of highly specialised predators such as the snow owl, the long-tailed skua, the stoat and the polar fox Lemmings are very sensitive to the effects of climate change, and lemming populations are declining in most areas of the Arctic. This is a threat to Arctic predators. Climate change means that the snow-free season, when lemmings aren’t able to take cover under the snow, is getting longer and longer, which means that lemmings are more exposed to predators over longer periods. More frequent winter thaws also mean that their winter nests are threatened.

Photo: Carsten Egevang/ARC-PIC.COM

62 Photo: Carsten Egevang/ARC-PIC.COM

Heat transfer under the ocean surface Glacial meltwater plays a major role in the sea-level rise taking place all over the globe. But precisely what mechanisms regulate the processes involved in glacial melting is unclear to scientists. In particular, the heat transfer between glaciers and the ocean is poorly understood. Heat is transferred from the ocean to glaciers via the fjords.

The Arctic Research Centre is working closely with the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources to understand and measure the effects of this heat transfer. Studies in the Godthåbs fjord have shown that the heat transported towards the glacier has enough thermal energy to melt all the ice that calves in the fjord.

63 Photo: Fernando Ugarte/ARC-PIC.COM

Lifestyle changes and chemicals affect health in the Arctic Breast cancer was previously a rare disease in Arctic populations. But in recent years, the number of breast cancer patients has seen a marked increase. The same is true of other conditions, for example obesity and diabetes. The changes in the Arctic are producing changes in human disease patterns. The Arctic Research Centre is working to map and explain the changed disease patterns in the Arctic. A major ongoing research project is follow 1,000 Greenlandic mothers and their children closely over ten to fifteen years. Photo: Maria Stenzel

The ecosystem of sea ice. The consequences of changes in sea-ice cover Reductions in sea-ice cover mean that more sunlight reaches the algae that live on the underside of the ice. These algae, which play an important role in the marine ecosystem, are adapted to the extremely low light levels normally found under snow-covered ice, which means that they may be vulnerable when exposed to high light stress. The Arctic Research Centre is employing new photosynthetic measurement systems to measure the biomass and quality of algae in sea ice. This will increase our understanding of algal life cycles and their response to high light stress. Photo: Anja Kinnberg Gunvald

Mud reveals past and future climate The sediment at the bottoms of lakes and the sea floor can tell us how temperature, precipitation, wind conditions, ocean currents and the sea ice cover have changed over the last 100,000 years. The Arctic Research Centre takes samples of these sediments from along the east and west coasts of Greenland, and by comparing this geological data with the biological data collected by the centre, researchers are gaining an understanding of how climate change affects Greenland’s ecosystems, both past and future.

Photo: Jesper Rais

The Annual Boat Race 2013 The University Park trembles with excitement. The eyes of thousands of cheering students are firmly fixed on the lake at its centre. Three inflatable kayaks await the three relay teams who are standing on the bank focusing their thoughts before the absolute high point of the day: the 2013 Boat Race finals. The first participant from each team moves into the starting position as this year’s commentators from the P3 radio programme Monte Carlo start the countdown from ten – and everyone joins in. 10 … 9 … 8 … 7 … 20,000 enthusiastic spectators counting down. 6…5…4… The combatants paddle in the air seconds before the race begins. 3 … 2 … 1! The fight for »The Golden Bedpan« is underway.

Photo: Anders Trærup

Photo: Anders Trærup

Photo: Lise Balsby

AU photographers high in the air to shoot and document the Boat Race. See video clips and photos at

au.dk/kapsejlads

The weather was dry and spirits were high when 20,000 students turned the traditional Boat Race into a huge AU celebration.

Photo: Anders Trærup

Photo: Lise Balsby

Gideon Strange from the Umbilicus Team

Photo: Jesper Rais

P3’s Monte Carlo hosts, Esben Bjerre and Peter »snowball« Falktoft served as commentators at the event.

A previous member of the Economic Association (EA), Julius Harbo, gives a pep talk to the EA Team counting Martin Nørskov, Rikke Andersen, Jesper Aagaard, Mads Nielsen and Peter Bech just before their first heat – in which they were beaten by their archrivals from the Umbilicus Team.

Photo: Jesper Rais

Photo: Jesper Rais

Jakob Wang from Sport Science exits the competition after loosing a heat.

The Umbilicus Team wins the 2013 Boat Race as the medical students win by half a track length thereby securing the victory. A few minutes later the happy winners can raise The Golden Bedpan. For the first time since 2010.

Photo: Jesper Rais

One of the winners, Victoria Gunmalm from Umbilicus.

68

Particle therapy is an advanced and very precise form of radiation therapy for cancer that has fewer side effects than standard radiation therapy. Particle therapy is therefore primarily used in the management of children affected by cancer and in adults who have cancer located in particularly sensitive areas. With the establishment of the Danish Centre for Particle Therapy, the method arrives in Denmark to the benefit of patients and researchers alike.

Particle therapy on the way to Denmark An international panel of experts have chosen Aarhus as the site of a national centre for particle therapy. The centre is expected to be ready to receive patients and carry out research in 2017.

»Particle therapy is the latest development in the field of radiotherapy for cancer patients. With particle therapy it is possible to hit the tumour with high doses, while at the same time protecting the healthy tissue as much as possible. This means better chances for more cancer patients surviving with fewer complications.« This is Professor Cai Grau’s simple explanation of the advantages of particle therapy. However, the technology behind it is far from simple. Rather, it involves highly specialised radiation therapy, which is only available at about 40 locations around the world. Currently, Danish children with cancer and selected adults with cancer in particularly sensitive areas such as e.g. the brain or head and neck areas are therefore treated in Germany and the USA. In the long term this group will comprise approx. 200 patients annually. Many others will also benefit from the Danish Centre for Particle Therapy, which will bring the Danish treatment and research in the new advanced radiation technology together under the same roof. »With particle therapy in Denmark, it will be possible to treat a range of other cancers with particle therapy instead of conventional radiation treatment, where we today sometimes have to

give such high doses that the healthy tissue is also damaged,« says Grau. He goes on to underline that the centre will come to work together with many different Danish players, including the DMDC (Danish Multi-disciplinary Cancer Groups) and the Danish cancer wards. Approx. 12-13,000 Danish cancer patients receive radiation treatment every year. Grau expects that in the long term up to 15 per cent of these patients will benefit from treatment with particle therapy. Strong research environment in Aarhus As yet, only limited research on how particle therapy impacts different cancer diseases is to be found: »We can, however, with a high degree of probability predict which complications the patient will have after radiotherapy, but there is a lack of specific clinical studies within particle therapy which document what works and what does not. It is therefore extremely important that the facility is also used for research«, says Grau. He is one of the driving forces behind Aarhus’ application to place the particle centre in the city. He points to a close correlation between research and treatment as one of the expla-

Photo: Aarhus University Hospital, Communication, Michael Harder

70 »There is a lack of specific clinical studies within particle therapy, which document what works and what does not. It is therefore extremely important that the facility is also used for research«, says Professor Cai Grau, one of the driving forces behind Aarhus’ application to place the particle centre in the city.

Each year the Danish Centre for Particle Therapy will be able to help many cancer patients to live a longer or better life. So this is a major step forward for cancer treatment in Denmark. It will also give us completely new options for research, leading to even more advanced Danish cancer treatment in the future. Bent Hansen, Chairman of Central Denmark Region

nations of why the panel of experts have recommended that the centre should be placed in Aarhus. »The very close collaboration between the university and the region is completely unique. Research is an integrated part of the everyday work and the treatment of patients«, says Grau. Aarhus has the largest research environment in Scandinavia within the field of radiotherapy. Nine professors, 40 PhD students and many clinical medical doctors are affiliated to the research environment. As recently as 2012 the university employed two of the leading experts in the world within the area as Denmark’s first professors of medical physics. International collaboration benefits patients While many of the existing particle units around the world are found in private hospitals, a number of Northern European countries are on the way with publicly funded units like Denmark. There is therefore great potential for collaboration across national borders. »In Denmark we have an amazingly strong research environment within radiotherapy. And if we collaborate with the other Northern European research environments in the area we will become even better,« says Grau, and continues: »Unlike the private hospitals, we do not have to take commercial interests into account. We are interested in generating new knowledge, so the patients can receive the best treatment. In fact, as a national centre we have an obligation to carry out research, so we can continuously improve.« The radiation researchers from Aarhus already regularly participate in many international councils, networks and research projects, including a range of EU projects. The Danish Centre for Particle Therapy will be located in connection with the new Aarhus University Hospital which, when completed in 2019, will be the largest hospital in Denmark.

Particle therapy in brief • • • •

Particle therapy is radiotherapy with protons and heavier ions. This makes it possible to hit the tumour more precisely and with a higher dose. There are therefore fewer complications and less risk of new radiation-induced cancer. Approx. 12-13,000 Danish cancer patients receive radiation treatment every year. Professor Cai Crau expects that in the long term up to 15 percent of these patients will benefit from treatment with particle therapy.

Photo: Aarhus University Hospital, Communication, Michael Harder

72

AU is a valuable The leading experts of the IT world prefer to work close to flourishing study and research environments. Google, one of the most important IT businesses in the world, has made a strategic decision to locate a development department right next to the Department of Computer Science at Aarhus University. Kasper Verdich Lund isn’t wearing shoes when he opens the door to Google’s Aarhus division. His socks match the company’s colourful logo. The lively Google colours are repeated in the office interior, which features Google-striped wallpaper. There’s a relaxed, young atmosphere which is emphasised even further by the racer bike parked right next to the wallpaper and the variety of trainers and sports clothing on display in the lobby. »We go running three times a week,« explains Kasper Verdi Lund, a software developer who also – somewhat reluctantly – admits to the title Tech Lead Manager. Though he and his colleague Lars Bak have helped build the

73

Aarhus University

neighbour for Google

Aarhus division from the ground up, he’s not interested in titles. »There’s not far from the top to the bottom at Google. We’re more interested in what people do than in what titles they have,« he says. Every other employee an AU graduate Google has around twenty employees at the Aarhus division, which has specialised in working with the development of the browser Google Chrome since it opened in 2006. While the employees come from all over the world, over half of them have a particularly intimate knowledge of Aarhus – including Kasper Lund himself. They’ve all taken their degrees on the other side of the street, at the Department of Computer Science. »Situating Google’s division right across from the depart-

74

It means a lot for dedicated experts that there’s a strong study environment in the town they decided to settle down in. Aarhus University has a really good reputation worldwide as far as that goes. Kasper Verdich Lund, software designer and Tech Lead Manager, Google

ment was entirely natural. It makes it possible for us to recruit new staff with the right qualifications. Some of the fundamental research on the development of programming languages that we draw on in our work with Google Chrome was conducted at the department, where among others Professor Ole Lehrmann Madsen has been a driving force,« explains Lund. Google’s Aarhus office is located in INCUBA Science Park just west of the main Aarhus campus, along with eighty other tech and IT-related businesses. The park was established to encourage innovation and growth in knowledge-based businesses. And being able to tap into some of the country’s brightest researchers and students by just crossing the street is no small advantage. »We know the teaching staff on the other side of the street, and they refer students to us if their interests are a good fit with ours,« explains Lund. A light bulb comes on Google’s Aarhus team also makes a valuable contribution in return. »We’ve taught whole courses to advanced computer science students. Of course, it takes a lot of preparation to produce fifteen lectures per semester, but in return, we’re certain that the students gain insight into the the techniques we work with. It’s fantastic to see students light up during a lecture, and you have the sense that they’re saying »I’m going to go home and keep working on that,« to themselves,« says Kasper Verdich Lund. In addition to giving students insight into how one of the world’s leading IT corporations functions, he also benefits from having to explain himself in front of a packed lecture hall. »Communicating my experiences in a teaching situation means I get my thoughts in order,« says Lund. According to him, the study environment associated with the Department of Computer Science has such an excellent reputation that it makes it easier for Google to recruit talented staff to the tiny Google office in Aarhus. »It means a lot for dedicated experts that there’s a strong study environment in the town they decided to settle down in. Aarhus University has a really good reputation worldwide as far as that goes,« he says.

75

Aarhus University is a member of a new cluster partnership on food. Businesses, food organisations, public organisations and Aarhus University will collaborate to create innovation and promote Denmark as a leader in the food sector. Silicon Valley is a magnet for innovative businesses and scientists in the computer industry. The new cluster partnership on food aims to do the same for the food sector: to generate and realise ideas in close collaboration between businesses, scientists, students organisations and government. The cluster partnership will be headquartered in Aarhus and will represent all of Denmark’s innovative forces in the food sector and promote Denmark as a leading producer and developer of healthy, safe and sustainable food.

The Silicon Valley of food will be located in Aarhus The cluster partnership on food Objectives: To create innovation in the food sector through cooperation between large and small businesses, research institutions, food organisations and government. Partners: Arla Foods, Aarhus University, the Danish Agriculture and Food Council, Central Denmark Region, the Municipality of Aarhus. Secretariat: To be housed in Agro Park in the Aarhus suburb Skejby, where the Danish Agriculture and Food Council is located. The cluster partnership will be directed by a board.

Attracting talents Society as a whole will benefit from the cluster partnership, which will stimulate growth and help create jobs. For Aarhus University, the partnership will help make the university even more attractive. »It will be easier for us to attract talented students who will be able to see career options in the food sector. This is true for both Danish and international students,« explains Michelle H. Williams, head of the Department of Food Science at Aarhus University. The partnership will give scientists and students a unique insight into the engine room of the food industry, and they will be able to work on projects that are directly related to what’s needed in »the real world«. More contact between the university and business The multinational dairy corporation Arla Foods, which is headquartered in Aarhus, is an important member of the partnership. »Denmark doesn’t have the same tradition as other countries for such close contact between business and the universities, but we hope that this will develop through the cluster partnership. For example, we’ll be able to give students an understanding that innovation isn’t something you can learn by reading a book. The road from idea to capitalisation is often long and difficult,« says Henrik Jørgen Andersen, head of Open Innovation at Arla. In addition to being able to create innovation through the collaboration with Aarhus University, Arla also expects to be able to recruit new talent. »Aarhus University is one of the competence centres where we will be recruiting new staff, so we hope to meet some capable people who can see Arla’s potential,« explains Andersen.

From the farm to the fork Food science is a prioritised area at Aarhus University, and the university can contribute research covering the food chain from farm to fork to the cluster partnership. »We work on the entire spectrum from primary food production through technology and the consumer aspect to heath, and since there aren’t any interior barriers between the different research fields at the university, we have a unique opportunity for interdisciplinary research initiatives,« says Williams.

76

skytem SkyTEM is a geological device used to detect groundwater. A large hexagon serving as the frame for heavy cables is suspended below the helicopter. By running an electrical current through the cables, a powerful magnetic field is formed which briefly creates an electrical current in the subsoil. This makes it possible to map the subsoil’s groundwater and minerals to depths of up to 500 meters, while the helicopter is flying above woodland, rocks or ice at up to 60 mph. The method, which is more precise than any other we currently know of, was developed by geophysicist Professor Kurt Sørensen and his staff at Aarhus University. The SkyTEM method proved its worth when it provided an international team of researchers with more knowledge about the Antarctic subsurface than had previously been achieved by forty years of drilling. Since then, the method has been used in many locations across the globe. Recently, researchers signed an agreement with the Indian government to map groundwater in selected areas there.

Receiver coil

Magnetic field

instruments

au.dk/skytem

Photo: Peter Rejcek, National Science Foundation

77

78

WEBSOC Higher yields and a cleaner environment through smart irrigation. Increased crop yields, more jobs, improved profitability and a cleaner environment with less deforestation. These are the objectives of a new project in Ghana managed by Senior Researcher Mathias Neumann Andersen from the Department of Agroecology and Environment at Aarhus University. The project was dubbed WEBSOC, which is short for Water, Energy-fromBiomass, Soil, Organics, and Crop. With support from Danida, researchers will transform agriculture in the African country through the use of solar-powered drop-by-drop irrigation. This will add one to two growth cycles a year. The increased quantity of plant debris will be used for production of biochar (partially burnt biomass), which improves the soil and heightens its capacity to retain water. Furthermore, biochar serves to curb emissions. By burning biomass further, fuel for cooking, heating and vehicles can be produced. A solar cell panel powers a pump which extracts water from the ground. When the bucket is full, the water automatically flows into the main hose which is connected to 20-metre drip hoses at 50 cm intervals.

Drip hose

pump

Solar cell panel

Photo: private

79

A drop of saliva can reveal malaria. A single drop of saliva is now enough to diagnose malaria, a condition affecting more than 200 million persons every year. More than half a million die from the disease which is caused by infection with parasites that spreads through mosquito bites. An interdisciplinary team of researchers from Aarhus University has developed the new REEAD method (Rolling Circle-Enhanced Enzyme Activity Detection) which makes it possible to detect the condition. Thanks to this method, malaria can now be diagnosed in people’s homes, which is a considerable advantage for families living in places like rural areas of Africa. In future, parents will not have to spend an entire working day travelling with their children to a health clinic for blood samples to be taken. The method also allows for early diagnosis of the disease which, in turn, leads to a more effective management of the condition. The development of the test was funded by Østjysk Innovation and will be tested this autumn at clinics in Ghana.

Photo: iStockphoto

REEAD

82

MatchPoints 2013: Culture, Social Capital and Politics

MatchPoints Seminar

2013

Since 2007, Aarhus University has held a MatchPoints Seminar each year in May. The goal of the academic conference is to create dialogue between Aarhus University and the general public on issues of broad social relevance. The seminars are open to the public, and the speakers are some of the most eminent national and international names in their fields.

The theme of MatchPoints 2013 was »Culture, social capital and politics«. To recognise Harvard professor Dr Robert Putnam’s affiliation with Aarhus University, the 2013 seminar centred on his groundbreaking research on social capital - the resources represented by citizens’ relationships of trust with one another and public institutions. Numerous researchers from Denmark and abroad participated in the seminar, the theme of which was the relationship between culture and politics, understood as the relationship between a society’s social and cultural values and its politics and political culture.

Integration was a hot topic at this year’s MatchPoints. Putnam singled out the American model for integration as the best possible approach several times. »In the United States, new populations have kept on emerging, and each time we’ve thought: Oh no – these people don’t fit in here. But then we’ve married some of them, and at some point you forget that they were foreigners once,« he explained. He concluded that Denmark as a society only has two choices when it comes to integration. Either we follow the example of the United States and welcome new populations – and get used to them over time – or we imitate Japan, an extremely homogeneous country with an ageing population and a paralysed economy. »In my view, you have to run the risk and welcome others in. There’s no other choice,« concluded Putnam.

Photo: Lars Kruse

There is a Distinguished Visiting Professor (DVP) affiliated with each seminar. The 2013-14 DVP is Professor Robert D. Putnam of Harvard University. The seminar also has a good relationship with the internationally acclaimed journalist Fareed Zakaria from Time Magazine and CNN.

Photo: Lars Kruse

During this first visit I have discovered even more interesting research here at Aarhus University – for example, research on social trust and cohesion, and I look forward to developing our collaboration in future. Robert Putnam, Harvard Professor

84

»First we saw the rise of the west. Now we’re seeing the rise of the rest.« Fareed Zakaria was a headline speaker at the 2013 MatchPoints Seminar. Zakaria is one of the world’s most influential foreign affairs commentators, and in his view, there’s not doubt that we are witnessing a radical shift in the global balance of power. The dominance of the West is being challenged by the rapidly developing economic powerhouses India and China, just two of the expanding economies that are emerging in Asia, Latin America and parts of Africa. »There’s no longer one single superpower. In recent years, the number of countries that are important players in the global economy, and that therefore have received a voice in the culture, has multiplied,« explained Zakaria. As he sees it, the challenge for many non-Western countries right now is to find their own path to modernity that is not simply a copy of the West.

Photo: Jesper Rais

MatchPoints is open to the public. At this years seminar eleven panellists and an enthusiastic audience discussed Danish value-based politics in a society where there is no longer a decisive difference between right-wing and left-wing economic policy. Precisely because of this development, value-based politics has become decisive for who wins elections and the support of the electorate. But how do we defines the values of a people, of a society? What unites us and what divides us? How quickly do our values change? Are any of our values really eternal?

Photo: Jesper Rais

Aarhus University is gaining an international reputation as an ideas hub. The MatchPoints conference is among the best in the world. Fareed Zakaria, foreign affairs commentator

matchpoints

86 In the following excerpt from Jens Christian Skou’s memoirs, he remembers the early years as research group leader at Aarhus University:

That Jens Christian Skou’s discovery of the sodium-potassium pump has generated so much pioneering research at Aarhus University is to his credit as research group manager. He brought together a really good team that lay the foundation for understanding how to study membrane proteins. He brought a range of different specialisations into play in relation to the pump and created an excellent interdisciplinary environment by the standards of the time. Poul Nissen, professor and director of the elite research centre DANDRITE, which was established with funding from the Lundbeck Foundation.

»The department had gradually gained a reputation as a vital research community, which made it possible to attract talented young people to our staff. Although it was tempting to focus the department’s research on active transport (in cell membranes, ed.), every effort was made to recruit new faculty broadly, so as to cover as much as possible of the field of physiology Ultimately, the department consisted of five to six research groups, each with its own area of specialisation. We introduced Saturday morning seminars at which the department’s researchers took turns presenting their research or invited researchers from other departments to hold lectures. The seminars were introduced to keep everyone informed about the department’s research activities as well as to forge contacts with research environments at other departments.«

A Nobel Laureate remembers Aarhus University’s first Nobel Prize Laureate, Professor Jens Chr. Skou, published his memoirs in Danish in May 2013. In his book, entitled Om heldige valg (On Fortunate Choices), Skou describes the long road towards the Nobel Prize in Chemistry he was awarded in 1997 for his discovery of the sodium-potassium pump that regulates the balance of the two chemicals inside and outside all living cells. The sodium-potassium pump is a critical protein that maintains proper function of our cells. After his discovery of the sodium-potassium pump in 1957, Skou had to struggle for years to win acceptance for his theory that this protein was located in the lipid bilayer of the cell mem-

brane. According to the received wisdom of the time, proteins could only be found in water, not in fat. Skou was not only an excellent scientist. He was also a visionary research group leader who laid the foundation for Aarhus University’s pioneering contributions to research on biochemistry and cell transport mechanisms when he was named professor at the Department of Physiology in 1963. The most recent initiative on this front is the elite research centre DANDRITE. The centre’s ambition is to understand the role of the proteins in cell membranes in brain cell communication.

Working together with Jens Christian Skou was a man-to-man situation. At our weekly meetings, he was an interested conversational partner and advisor, and he brought together scientists from many different fields. So in a way, it was an interdisciplinary environment. And when the central importance of the pump was confirmed in the mid-1960s, research on the pump spread from the Department of Physiology to several other departments at Aarhus University. Mikael Esmann, professor at the Department of Biomedicine

Photo: Søren Kjeldgaard

87

Photo: Lars Kruse

curriculum vitae jens erik sørensen 2004 1984 1983 1979 1979 1972 1969

Museum Director at ARoS Museum Director, Aarhus Museum of Art Museum Director, the National Gallery of Denmark Curator, Aarhus Museum of Art MA, Aarhus University Upper secondary-school leaving certificate, Aalborg Studenterkursus Completed training as an electrician

89

2013 distinguished alumnus

I find myself in art Art can blow you away. That was what the young electrician Jens Erik Sørensen experienced, causing him to change direction and take up art history at Aarhus University. Since then he has been dedicated to conveying art to others and he has created an art museum with an international reputation. Director for ARoS, Jens Erik Sørensen, is the 2013 Distinguished Alumnus. Jens Erik Sørensen had just taken over as director of what was in 1984 Aarhus Museum of Art, when Mayor Thorkild Simonsen paid him a visit with an important message. The young Museum Director was to make sure that Aarhus got a new museum of art. »I floated home on cloud nine. It was a dream of mine to be allowed to create an art museum from scratch.« He spent the next twenty years – while working as Museum Director – planning an ambitious new Danish museum with a world-class art collection to be located in the heart of Aarhus. The result was ARoS, an architecturally striking nine-storey museum that opened in April 2004. Tired of his life Jens Erik Sørensen was originally trained as an electrician. Aged 23 he was working on one of the Danish Navy’s frigates. When the ship reached Bergen in Norway, he visited the town’s art museum and saw a number of paintings by Edvard Munch. Here were dark, sombre landscapes. And here were pale faces with eyes full of angst that moved towards him like ghosts. The paintings did something to Jens Erik Sørensen’s mind – and convinced him that his life had to change direction. »Munch’s paintings are full of emotions, and when you find yourself in a stressful situation, you experience those emotions yourself. I was feeling rotten at that time. I was just tired of my life. I didn’t like being an electrician. Munch’s paintings blew me away. I said to myself: If paintings can do that, then I will work with paintings too.« After returning home, he left the electrician trade, took his upper secondary school-leaving examination and started studying art history at Aarhus University. It was a completely dif-

ARoS and Jens Erik Sørensen Jens Erik Sørensen has put on a steady stream of spectacular exhibits at AROS, which have made waves both in Denmark and abroad. ARoS has shown works by Michael Kvium, Asger Jorn, Bill Viola, Mariko Mori and Edvard Munch, among many others. The Munch exhibit attracted 280,000 visitors, a record number. Jens Erik Sørensen has also put on a controversial but very popular exhibit

ferent – and better – world. A spellbinding world The young electrician, used to trudging around cold, rainy building sites, suddenly found himself in the warmth of the former Aarhus Museum of Art in Vennelyst Park, listening to art historian Poul Vad analysing paintings. The students sat on the art museum’s grey carpet, which was thick and soft. »I had gone to heaven. A new, spellbinding world was opened for us. I was completely amazed that it was possible to get so much out of paintings.« Jens Erik Sørensen got together with some of the other students who, like him, wanted to bring art to the people. »At that time, art was often viewed as something especially fine, which was only for the middle classes. Museums were boring. We wanted to change all that; we will open the art museums for everybody. We wanted to bring reality, knowledge dissemination and the new art into the museums. We wanted more activities and we wanted to get hold of children and the young. We rebelled against the museums and against our own schooling.« Today, five art historians from the same AU class are directors of art museums around Denmark. Jens Erik Sørensen has maintained his connection to Aarhus University ever since, and has continued to collaborate with his academic colleagues on the staff of the Art History programme at AU. This collaboration has resulted in a number of co-financed PhD fellowships. Most recently, a guest curator from AU was involved in the ARoS exhibit Gold – Treasures from the Danish Golden Age.

of racing cars and Sculpture by the Sea, an exhibit of sculpture on the beaches along the Bay of Aarhus that has already become a magnet for visitors. On 12 October 2013 the Pas de Deux Royal exhibit will open with works by HM The Queen and HRH The Prince Consort. Jens Erik Sørensen is retiring as Director of ARoS at the end of 2013.

Vision and public spirit The new rector of Aarhus University has a lot in common with his predecessor: both are from West Jutland, and both have AU in their DNA. In August 2013, Brian Bech Nielsen took over the position of rector from Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen, who carried out the most comprehensive reforms in the history of the university during his eight-year term.

The two men have a lot in common: most obviously their last names. Both Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen and Brian Bech Nielsen were born and bred in West Jutland, on the island of Fanø and in the small town of Holstebro respectively. Both were also active KFUM boy scouts. This was a formative experience for both men: not only did they learn to tie square knots and build bonfires, they learned that you need perseverance, team spirit and will-power to reach your goals. And when it was time to embark on their adult lives after graduating from secondary school, both men again chose a similar path: both elected to study science at Aarhus University. Holm-Nielsen chose the flora and fauna of biology, while Bech Nielsen immersed himself in physics and the miniature universe of nanoparticles. Both have also served as deans of the Faculty of Science and Technology. And now both can add the title of rector to their impressive CV’s. They also agree on the nature of the challenge involved in the job. It’s about thinking the university in a larger context. Aarhus University is part of Danish, European and global society. And universities must play a significant role in relation to creating growth at all levels through research and education. Quite simply, universities have a duty to engage in society. From provincial to world-class To make Danish universities understand their role in society was the task Holm-Nielsen took upon himself when he became rector of Aarhus University in 2005. At that time, AU had about 5.000 employees and 26,000 students. Today, the numbers

have almost doubled. 11,000 employees and 42,000 students. »Aarhus University was already a strong university with excellent programmes in all of its subjects. But at the same time, I experienced the university as somewhat of an introvert that didn’t quite understand that there was a world outside that it both has obligations in relation to and exists in constant interplay with,« explains Holm-Nielsen. To get AU to open itself up to the world, Holm-Nielsen knew that he would need to work to change the university’s selfunderstanding. »And he has succeeded in that task,« adds Bech Nielsen. »We’ve gone from being a university that – on the rare occasions we looked outside – only every paid attention to what they were doing at the University of Copenhagen. We saw ourselves more as a regional university. Now we’ve become a pacesetting university in Denmark and in Europe, and if we broaden our perspective to the whole world, we’re in the same league as the best.« Among universities established less than 100 years ago, Aarhus University is in the top ten worldwide, and in most international rankings, AU is among the 100 best universities out of a total of 20,000. Help from the government According to Holm-Nielsen, former Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen helped transform how Danish universities perceived themselves. In 2005, he established the Globalisation Council in order to advise the government on a strategy to transform Denmark into a leading growth, knowledge and entrepreneurial society. The council was chaired by the Prime Minister himself and

91 Photo: Jesper Rais

Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen and Brian Bech Nielsen, the previous and current rectors of Aarhus University, respectively, have a lot in common and agree on one considerable challenge facing the university. It’s about perceiving the university as part of a larger context, because Aarhus University forms part of both Danish, European and global society. And universities must play a significant role in relation to creating growth at all levels through research and education, they agree.

included representatives from industry, the unions, education and research. »His message was perfectly clear: the universities must play a more active role in relation to society. And that approach, along with our close interplay with the business community and the additional sectors of our society, is something other Europeans have really envied,« says Holm-Nielsen. »While making the university more open to the world outside, my most important task has been to protect the individual researcher’s freedom. If you are a researcher, it’s absolutely crucial that you are able to test your theories and work in the field where you have a truly unique insight. Our establishment of the Aarhus Institute of Advanced Studies (AIAS), where researchers from all over the world meet and devote themselves to conducting excellent research without any other obligations, should be seen in this light. Put quite simply, we provide the best possible conditions for their work.« »We have to master the art of keeping our balance,« explains Bech Nielsen. »On the one hand, we have to emphasise society’s demands on us. At the end of the day, society is footing the bill, after all. On the other hand, we also have to understand that the Brian Bech Nielsen, best way for us to live up to socirector ety’s demands is by insisting on the researcher’s freedom. Some have experienced the increased orientation towards society as a limitation of the individual researcher’s freedom. But it’s in no way under attack. This is purely a matter of being obligated to remember why and for whom we conduct our research,« he says.

Youth and investing in the future While there has been intense focus on the role of research and contributing to growth and development in society at large in recent years, there is now an additional intense political focus on education. The government’s target is for 25 per cent of school-leavers in any one year to complete a long-cycle postsecondary degree. »Everyone acknowledges that the knowledge our youth acquire is the most important thing for society. And to make that knowledge as qualified as possible, it needs to be based on research. Again, good research is decisive for good degree programmes,« says Bech-Nielsen, Aarhus University’s new rector. He and his predecessor Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen agree that an important task for Danish universities right now is to take a closer look at the transitions in students’ educational careers as well as their coherence more generally. »The educational system consists of many stages, and it’s important that transitions such as the progression from upper secondary school to university are smooth and well-prepared. But looking at the transition from university to the labour market is at least as important,« says HolmNielsen. »And it’s also important to remember that education is also about cultivating the whole person. So when we speak about the role of the university in society, cultivation also makes a major contribution to society’s growth. Even though it may not be immediately quantifiable in pounds and pennies,« says Bech Nielsen.

Now we’ve become a leading university in Denmark and in Europe, and if we broaden our perspective to the whole world, we’re in the same league as the best.

92

facts FOR AU

4,373

# ACAD. STAFF

44,527

# STUD.

STUDENTS AT AARHUS UNIVERSITY

ACADEMIC STAFF AT AARHUS UNIVERSITY

30,000

2,500

2003

TODAY

370 1928

Aarhus University was established in 1928 as a small private initiative

1933

first use of the name ‘aarhus university’

the number of phd degrees aarhus university

1928

TODAY

67

complete degree programmes taught in english

1961

the university hall of residence no. 9 is home to hrh princess margrethe. later to become queen of denmark.

1970

aarhus university becomes a publicly financed institution

core activities, expenditures

33%

research

12%

knowledge exchange

24%

31% 2006/07

merger with the institute of business and technology in herning the national environmental research institute teh danish institute of agricultural sciences the aarhus school of business the danish school of education

1992

merger with aarhus dental school

1995

hrh crown prince frederik obtainshis ma degree in political science

1997

first nobel prize received by emeritus professor jens christian skou, in chemistry

2010

second nobel prize received by professor dale t. mortensen, in economic sciences

2012

merger with the engineering college of aarhus

talent development

education

I nternational students and e xchan g e students 2010

2011

2012

International students in full degree programmes

3,188

3,393

3,301

Total, including incoming exchange students

4,443

4,461

4,455

Exchange students, incoming

1,255

1,068

1,154

Exchange students, outgoing

947

1,287

1,404

2010

2011

2012

574

539

491

P h D students

New PhD students Enrolled PhD students Arts

337

340

275

Science and Technology

692

791

753

Health

570

602

645

Business and Social Sciences

223

231

227

Total PhD students

1,822

1,964

1,900

Total for Danish universities, new PhD students

2,592

2,384

2,404

Total for Danish universities, Enrolled PhD students

7,773

8,402

8,293

329

333

370

1,416

1,543

1,605

No. PhDs Total for Danish universities, PhD degrees awarded

employees 2011

2012

Academic staff

6,313

6,321

Technical-administrative staff

4,905

5,230

11,218

11,551

Total academic and technical-administrative staff

AU in figures Key fig ures 2012 2012 Students

43,520

Graduates

8,462

PhD students

1,900

Employees

11,551

Turnover in mill. EUR

804

Students 2012 ARTS

HEALTH

BSS

ST

Total

Bachelor

5,591

2,286

8,237

4,832

20,946

Master’s

7,577

1,627

6,010

1,429

16,643

275

645

227

753

1,900

1)

1,645

242

1,881

263

4,031

Total students at AU

15,088

4,800

16,355

7,277

43,520

Danish universities 2012 total 2)

41,513

17,257

54,824

40,987

154,581

ARTS

HEALTH

BSS

ST

Total

806

350

1,781

671

3,608

1,193

419

1,696

429

3,737

PhD Part-time students

1. Part-time Master’s etc. 2. Part-time students excepted

g raduates 2 0 1 2

BA/BSc degrees MA/MSc degrees PhD degrees

45

110

50

165

370

232

27

474

14

747

Total no. of AU graduates

2,276

906

4,001

1,279

8,462

Danish universities 2012 total

8,128

3,865

14,993

8,279

35,265

Continuing professional

FOLD AND SAVE This page along with the following pages with AU figures can be removed from the profile brochure and folded to pocket-size:

Research and dissemination results

Research publications

Of which peer-reviewed Research communication and educational publications Total publications

Accounts and bud get, mill . eur

Turnover

profile 13/14

au in figures

Liquidity Equity, excl. Treasury bond Total external funding commitments to AU – year end 1. Budget AU figures 2012

2 0 1 3 bud get by activity type C o mp a re d w i t h t h e 2 0 1 2 a cco u n ts

Income Education Basic research External funding Public sector consultancy Other Total income 1) 1. Financial income is not included in total income.

2 0 1 3 B ud get by main academic area C o mp a re d w i t h t h e 2 0 1 2 a cco u n ts

Income Arts Science and Technology Health Business and Social Sciences Shared Total income 1)



1. Financial income is not included in total income

Research collaboration with companies 2010 331

au figu in res

FTE

2011

2012

9,813

9,917

10,408

4,386

4,554

5,199

1,918

1,969

1,801

11,731

11,886

12,209

Accounts

Budget

2011

2012

2013

701

804

845

201

201

161

80

80

80

523

509 1)

483

2012 Accounts

2013 Budget

mill. eur

mill. eur

213

219

285

288

221

257

27

26

64

62

810

851

2013 Budget

mill. eur

mill. eur

138

145

340

369

165

171

149

152

19

13

810

851

Department of Culture and Society

319

Department of Aesthetics and Communication

332

Centre for Teaching Development and Digital Media (department-like centre)

64

AU Centre for Entrepreneurship and Innovation

12

SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY Department of Animal Science

204

Department of Bioscience

442

Department of Environmental Science

113

Department of Engineering

112

Department of Agroecology

268

Department of Food Science

109

Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics

379

Department of Physics and Astronomy

231

Department of Mathematics

101

Department of Chemistry

143

Department of Computer Science

138

Department of Geoscience Aarhus University School of Engineering (ASE)

Department of Clinical Medicine

576

Department of Biomedicine

354

Department of Dentistry

267

Department of Public Health

190

Department of Forensic Medicine

55

School for Dental Assistants,

64

Additional staff are employed at Aarhus University Hospital.

BUSINESS AND SOCIAL SCIENCES Department of Business Communication

134

Department of Law

156

Department of Political Science and Government

146

Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences

145

Department of Business Administration

175

Department of Economics and Business

270

AU Herning

101

Basic research centres Centre for DNA Nanoteknologi (CDNA) Center for Geomicrobiology Center of Functionally Integrative Neuroscience (CFIN) Centre for Carbohydrate Recognition and Signalling (CARB) Center for Massive Data Algorithmics (MADALGO) Centre for Quantum Geometry of Moduli Spaces (QGM) Center for Materials Crystallography (CMC) Center for Oxygen Microscopy and Imaging (COMI) Centre for Research in Econometric Analysis of Time Series (CREATES) Centre on Autobiographical Memory Research (CON AMORE) Center for Insoluble Protein Structures (inSPIN) The Stellar Astrophysics Centre (SAC) Centre for mRNP Biogenesis and Metabolism Interdisciplinary centres Interdisciplinary Nanoscience Center (iNANO) Centre for iSequencing (iSEQ) MINDLab

2012

336

360

93 205

HEALTH

Centre for Membrane Pumps in Cells and Disease (PUMPkin)

2011

392

The Department of Education

Hygienists and Clinical Technicians (SKT)

centres

2012 Accounts

Departments and schools

2010

ARTS

Centre for Integrated Registerbased Research (CIRRAU) Arctic Research Centre (ARC) Interacting Minds Centre (IMC) Participatory Information Technology Centre (PIT) National centres The Danish Centre for Environment and Energy The Danish Centre for Food and Agriculture The Danish Centre for Culture and Learning

profile 13/14 Produced by AU Communication, Aarhus University Translation and proof AU Communication and Peter Lambourne Print vahle+ nikolaisen UK Edition 8.500

YK

SA

61

TR

Profile 13/14 was printed with vegetable-based inks on Munken Polar paper at a press certified by the Nordic Ecolabel. The paper is made of wood from FSC®-certified forestry and other certified sources.

8

isbn 978-87-92829-13-9 ISSN 1903-8720

1 G N R . 54

-

Aarhus University Nordre Ringgade 1 DK-8000 Aarhus C Denmark TEL: +45 8715 0000 E-MAIL: [email protected] WEB: www.au.dk/en