HoD News - 27 February 2018
Dear colleagues,
Last week I signed the contract with the Dean of Aarhus BSS, Thomas Pallesen, to commence as the new head of department for three years starting 1 March.
I have now been the acting head of the department for 6 months. However, I do not feel that the past months have been a period of waiting, since a number of actions with long-range implications for our department have already been initiated with the approval of the dean. The department needs to move forward after almost 3 years with management challenges and with me being the 6th (including acting) head of department in this period. I look forward to continue the work and collaboration with all of you in the future. I would not have taken this job without the support that I feel broadly within the department. In the coming couple of weeks, I am going to have meetings with all sections to discuss a number of issues, including the plans for the upcoming office relocation at the department.
The head of the logistics section, Professor Kim Allan Andersen, has asked me to be released from his tasks as of 1 April 2018. Kim Allan has been part of the department management team for the past seven years, and he has done an excellent job. It has been a pleasure to work with Kim Allan the previous two years, and I am going to miss him in the management team. Kim Allan will continue as head of the programme committee for the Math-Econ programme, and he will also continue in the department review panel for external fund raising. Professor Lars Relund Nielsen will take over the position as head of the logistics section, and I look forward to the collaboration with him.
In a previous newsletter, I noted that 2017 was an exceptional year for the department in terms of the amount attracted in external research funding. Professor Carsten Bøcker Pedersen, NCRR, is part of the management team at the new Big Data Centre for Environment and Health, which has received DKK 60 million from the Novo Nordisk Foundation Challenge Programme. It has also become official that Professor Philipp Schröder has received a grant of DKK 15 million from the Carlsberg Foundation to the new research centre FIND (Firm and Industry Dynamics), which will be established at the department to conduct basic research into mechanisms and consequences of disruption and globalisation. Congratulations to everybody who has contributed to attracting both small and large grants to the department.
As you know, it will be necessary to make a relocation of offices at the department. The plans will be presented at a departmental meeting today - 27 February from 12:15 to 13:00 in Fuglesangssalen. Subsequently I will meet with all the sections to further discuss my plans. The final details of the relocation will be worked out during the next few months, and I expect that all moves will be completed during August such that we will be ready to receive new colleagues and to commence the fall semester by 1 September. The rough plan implies that the Department will receive 17 new offices from MGMT in building 2622(C), 1st floor. The section for Econometrics and Business Statistics will occupy this floor as well as a number of offices on the top level of building 2632(L). The section for Accounting and Finance will be located in building 2630(K). I also plan to gather a number of colleagues across sections such that a macro-environment can be established on the top level of building 2632(L) (where the accounting people are presently located); this includes the Dale T. Mortensen Centre. COBE will move from building 2627(H) to building 2635(I), and finally I expect that Trygfonden’s Centre for Child Research will receive more office space in building 2622(C), at the basement floor, following their renewal of the grant from the Tryg Foundation.
The relocation makes it possible to gather research groups and sections, and makes it possible for PhD students to have their office in the vicinity of their supervisors. Also, the plan implies that the 10-14 new colleagues we expect to welcome during the coming year will be located in the groups and sections where they naturally belong.
I regret the inconvenience that the relocation will imply, but unfortunately this step is necessary in order to provide an optimal research environment and office conditions for the department as a whole.
Niels Haldrup