New Deans and Pro-Deans have been appointed at KI
On Tuesday 17 June, Vice-Chancellor Anders Hamsten decided who will be appointed Deans and Pro-Deans at Karolinska Institutet as of 2015 and for the following three years. A new position on the board was instituted at the same time – a Pro-Dean of Infrastructure.
The advisory election of Deans and Pro-Deans to the executive Boards of Higher Education, Doctoral Education and Research was completed on 9 June. However, it is the Vice-Chancellor who will decide on who is assigned to the positions.
On Tuesday he decided to appoint Annika Östman Wernerson as the Dean of Higher Education, as she received the highest number of votes during the advisory election. Gunnar Nilsson, who received the second most votes, has been named Pro-Dean of the Board of Higher Education.
Having received the most votes in the election, Anders Gustafsson will continue as Dean of Doctoral Education, and continuing in her role as Pro-Dean of the Board of Doctoral Education is Marianne Schultzberg, who came in second place.
On the Board of Research, Hans-Gustaf Ljunggren's appointment as Dean of Research has been extended. He received the majority of the votes in the advisory election. There were two people, however, who shared second place with the exact same number of votes: Marie Wahren-Herlenius and Karin Dahlman-Wright.
Anders Hamsten decided to assign the position of Pro-Dean of Research to Marie Wahren-Herlenius. At the same time, he is instituting an entirely new position of Pro-Dean of Infrastructure. This position goes to Karin Dahlman-Wright.
"Infrastructure has been an important issue for the Pro-Dean and is a challenge which is constantly growing. For example, we have SciLifeLab which is under construction and we plan to have Biomedicum as well as new research laboratories in Huddinge. It is therefore important to strengthen this position", says Anders Hamsten.
In addition, the current Director of Infrastructure will be retiring in the autumn.
In general, Anders Hamsten has been able to adhere to the results of the advisory election, as well as with respect to gender equality. Upon the new mandate period, there is one woman among the three Deans, unlike the previous mandate period when there were three men. Among the Pro-Deans there are now two women, instead of just one as there was previously.
"I'm very happy that the balance between men and women has improved", says Anders Hamsten.
“However, with regard to geographical representation the majority of the new Deans and Pro-Deans are located at Campus Huddinge”.
"It is true that those who were nominated and received the most votes are predominantly located on the Huddinge Campus, but I do not see a problem with that because they now have a KI-comprehensive assignment", says Anders Hamsten.
In the autumn there will be an election for members to the executive Boards as well as for the faculty representatives to the Board of Karolinska Institutet. The elections begin in September and will end in December. On 1 January 2015, the newly appointed will begin work in their positions.
Text: Madeleine Svärd