News from the NJ Faculty Board meeting, 8 February

Recruitments

Guest professor of environmental sciences

The faculty board had decided to propose that Professor Keith Paustian, Colorado State University, USA, be employed as a guest professor of environmental sciences. The Department of Ecology will be Professor Paustian’s host. He is also expected to give guest lectures at KSLA. Keith Paustian is a University Distinguished Professor at his home university, holder of the King Carl XVI Gustaf Professorship in Environmental Science 2023–2024 and a guest researcher on the August T Larsson’s guest researcher programme at SLU for the period 2021–2023.

Keith Paustian is planning to spend a total of 9 months at SLU during 2023 as part of his guest professorship. The King Carl XVI Gustaf 50th Anniversary Fund for Science, Technology and Environment is contributing SEK 965,000 towards the funding of Professor Paustian’s stay.

Professor of plant physiology

The faculty board decided to launch, subject to approval by the vice-chancellor, the recruitment procedure for a professor of plant physiology at the Department of Plant Biology.

Adjunct senior lecturer

The faculty board decided to approve the recruitment of Gustav Johed as an adjunct senior lecturer at the Department of Economics, following processing by the faculty’s academic appointments board.

Newly appointed docents

The faculty board has decided to appoint Anna Székely docent in biology, specialising in ecology.

Extension of the Interdisciplinary Academy (IDA) programme

The faculty board has decided to extend the Interdisciplinary Academy (IDA) programme until the end of 2024. SEK 2,693,000 will be earmarked for this for the period 2023–2024. At the request of programme coordinator Marie Stenseke, the board has asked the dean to adopt an instruction for IDA to cover the extended period.

Subject fields at the NJ Faculty

As per the faculty strategy, the faculty board has started the work of reducing, long-term, the number of subject fields at the faculty. A policy decision was adopted in December, aiming to reduce today’s 55 subject fields to 50. At that meeting, the faculty board also decided that three subject fields will be withdrawn when the professors who are heads of subject retire. These fields are statistics focusing on biometrics, microbial metabolism and short rotation forestry.

The task of prioritising the subjects relevant to the faculty is a complex one and will be based on a number of criteria, not least teaching needs. The board discussed procedures for prioritising subject fields; these will be approved by the dean later this semester. The aim is for the faculty board to finalise priorities in good time before the professor who is head of subject is expected to retire. This will make it easier for departments to plan ahead.