Gunilla Krantz is GU’s first professor of public health

Despite the fact that more people are flying paGe 4

D ec r e a s i n g e m i s s i o n s

attract star researchers from the global elite! paGe 12

P r i z e w i n n e r m a rt i n B e rg ö

pro Vice-chancellor with global interests paGe 9

H e l e n a l i n D H o l m s c H u l z

Following her father’s footsteps

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UNIVERSITY OFGOTHENBURG

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2 Vice chancellor

Greater pressure for change requires long term goalsT h e p r e s s u r e for change in the Swedish university sector has increased considerably of late. Hardly a week goes by without there being some kind of move or reaction from the highest political level. It has to do with edu-cation and research. Of a rapid stream of pro-posals, some deal with truly large, structural changes in the Swedish university landscape. Minister of Education Jan Björklund has expressed a clear ambition to decrease the number of colleges at the same time that universities are strengthened.

Side by side everything else that hap-pens, there are now preparations for the Government’s new research and innovation policy proposition, which will be presented in the fall. Here, all schools in Sweden, as well as other parties close to the research sector, have been encouraged to take action. In this research proposition, the Government has also appointed a special research advisory board. The University of Gothenburg is repre-sented by Professor Bo Rothstein and myself as Vice-chancellor.

I T I s a b s o l u T e ly not wrong for the Government to want change. Nothing is ever so good that it can not become better. I believe that everyone in our sector is prepa-red to agree with that, not least against the background of a rapid growth in competition around the world. Competition for resources, both for research and education, will be even stronger in the future than it is now. At the same time, there are growing needs for each individual’s competence and for sustainable social development.

The Government’s demands for quick reforms are not always a guarantee of suc-cess, however. For example, Sweden’s educa-tion teachers, and all teachers in the country, are well aware of that. The plans for a new teacher registration for instance were soon impossible after a somewhat optimistic time frame from the Department.

To be able to match a world in which our role and our values are constantly challenged, we as a school must have clear goals for all parts of our activities. That is precisely what our ongoing vision efforts are working toward – a long term strategy that takes height for a changing and not completely foreseeable future. But, so that we as a university will be able to manage to take responsibility for our activities with the priorities that are necessary, two things are

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required – political predictability and clear guidelines. These are missing today. What universities and colleges are looking for now are national long term goals for research and education, in short a long term strategy. This is a condition if the Government is serious about making Sweden a top-ranking know-ledge nation. Knowledge of all forms then must be the goal and the individual’s pos-sibilities for regular competence development and lifelong learning must be ensured.

W h aT m u s T a l s o be ensured is that universi-ties and colleges receive the autonomy they have been promised. Only then will each school be able to make its own choices and priorities that are needed for a long term sustainable development of their activities in a competitive world – regardless of whether it has to do with how we supply our knowledge, how we attract new students or how we create public benefit of new knowledge.

Current political fluctuations can be minimised with a long term education and research strategy for Sweden. Greater predictability and transparency would give better conditions for meeting society’s needs for knowledge development and competence. But, first and foremost, it would create repose and a calm working environment for the Swedish university sector.

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a magazine for employees of the Universit y of gothenbUrg

May 2012

e d I T o r - I n C h I e f a n d p u b l I s h e rallan eriksson 031 - 786 10 21 allan.eriksson@gu.se

e d I T o r a n d V I C e p u b l I s h e reva lundgren 031 - 786 10 81 eva.lundgren@gu.se

p h o T o G r a p h y a n d r e p r o d u C T I o nJohan Wingborg 031 - 786 29 29 johan.wingborg@gu.se

G r a p h I C f o r m a n d l ayo u Tanders eurén 031 - 786 43 81 anders.euren@gu.se

C o n T r I b u T I n G W r I T e r shelena svenssonannika hansson

T r a s l aT I o nJanet Westerlund

a s s I s Ta n T G r a p h I C f o r m björn eriksson p r o o f r e a d I n G robert ohlson, välskrivet i göteborg

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e - p o s Tgu-journalen@gu.se

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I s s u e s7 issues/year. the next issue will come out on 20 June 2012.

d e a d l I n e f o r m a n u s C r I p T s 31 may 2012

m aT e r I a l the Journal does not take responsibility for unsolicited material. the editorial office is responsible for unsigned material. feel free to quote, but give your source.

C h a n G e o f a d d r e s s inform the editorial office of the change in writing.

C o V e r gunilla Krantz professor of public health photography: Johan Wingborg

3 g uJ o u r n a l3 | 2012 contents

The editors: Thank you dear readers for your responses!

Vice- chancellor 2 Greater pressure for change requires

long term goals

news 4 Total emissions are decreasing despite the

increase in passengers

proFile

6 Professor Gunilla Krantz is returning to Rwanda to study how violence has affected people

rep orT

9 Pro Vice-chancellor Helena Lindholm Schulz wants to make GU more international

12 Prize winner Martin Bergö wants to attract star researchers from the global elite

14 David McCallum from Canada is enriched by the Swedish weaving tradition

pro Vice-chancellor with global interestsHer skills in discussing, listening and pushing things forward are some of Helena Lindholm Schulz best characteristics. At 48, she’s one of the youngest ever in the post of Pro Vice-chancellor.

prize winning cancer researcher Muster the courage to invest in global stars! It will give us all a lift, says Martin Bergö.

Discovers new eventsAre there connections between handicrafts and computer programs? David McCallum does research in creating events in the area of digital representation at the School of Photography.

My africa Gunilla Krantz is back in Rwanda to study how the consequences of war for the local population.

W e ’ V e j u s T r e a d the preliminary results of the questions about GU Journal in the Work Environment Barometer. It’s still too early to draw any general conclusions. But a pro-blem that we’ve had a long time is that many employees, about one fourth, don’t receive an issue of the magazine where they work. It shows that there are weaknesses in the internal distri-bution after the magazine has been distributed in piles in the staff rooms or corridors. A question that wasn’t asked in the Barometer, but that would have been interesting, is how many people actually read the maga-zine on the web or in pdf format.

The Barometer shows that about 60 per cent read or leaf through each number and a further 23 per cent read it and now and again. This is, from what we can see, a certain decline compared with 2008. But, still, employees give GU Journal good marks. For example, 77 per cent think that the magazine contains important news, almost as many appreciate the op-eds and 74 per cent think that the magazine has a broad coverage of what happens at GU. About as many feel that the magazine gives a credible picture of the university. This year’s Barometer asked a new question about the extent to which the

magazine is independent in relation to the University management. Since the magazine has an independent edi-torial policy, it’s interesting to know how it is perceived. Almost 60 per cent agree completely or partially with that statement, which we interpret as a positive result (although many people didn’t answer the question).

In the next issue we’ll give ana-lyses and articles from the Work Environment Barometer.

W e ’ r e a l s o h a p p y that GU Journal was nominated in the spring for the best staff magazine by the association

for Editors in Internal Media. The magazine didn’t get the first prize, unfortunately, but it’s of course always fruitful to compare yourself with other magazines.

T h e s p r I n G h a s been full of exciting activities. During the Science Festival, people could take the tram from Biskopsgården to Örgryte, partici-pate in Science Slam and ride on the Liseberg carousel. It’s really fun that Gothenburg has one of Europe’s lar-gest science festivals!

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T h e G oa l o f the climate stra-tegy for 2010-2015 is that the University of Gothenburg will decrease its emission of CO2 by 20 per cent by the year 2015, compared with 2008.

In 2011 the total carbon dioxide emissions decreased by 5 per cent compared with the year before, but that’s completely dependent on a lower use of energy. If we only look at travel, emissions increased by 3.8 per cent.

“It’s a tough goal to achieve a decrease of 20 per cent but we’ll manage it,” says environmental manager Eddi Omrcen. “The calculation is based on GU conti-nuing to decreased its emissions by 2.5 per cent per year and to this time the decrease has gone a little more quickly than what we need in order to reach the goal.”

Air travel accounts for almost half of GU’s total emissions,

energy and electricity for a little more than half. Put simply, it’s energy use that decreases while air travel is increasing.

Since July 1, 2011, the univer-sity has compensated for all air travel for work according to the principle that the one that causes the emissions must also pay for the actual emission that air travel causes.

“ T h aT G u C l I m aT e compensates for airplane trips doesn’t auto-matically mean that we fulfil our climate goal. The goal is our actual gross emission that will be reduced at home by 20 per cent by the year 2015. Beyond that, we take special responsibility and climate compensate for our air-plane trips,” says Eddi Omrcen, who disagrees with calculating with the reduction of climate compensation in the goal.

The sustainability report of 2011 is now complete and can be read at www.adm.gu.se

HÅLLBARHETS-REDOVISNING

2011emissions from electricity and heating decreased by 12 per cent during 2011, according to the latest sustainability report. but at the same time we travelled more than we ever have. domestic flights to stockholm in particular increased by 14 per cent, in spite of this being against current policy.

More and more people fly to stockholm but total emissions are decreasing

“In that case, it means that we buy us free and I don’t believe in that. We have to in words and actions be able to show that we work with decreasing our emissions. It has to do with credibility.”

W I T h r e G a r d T o travel, there are obvious conflicts of goals between one the one hand being an international university and on the other being an environme-ntally aware university.

“It isn’t reasonable to expect that we should travel less but rather the opposite. We shall be an international university and for that reason it’s important that we take responsibility for our air travel by climate compensating. But sometimes video conferences can be better.”

According to meeting and travel policy, air flights under 500 kilometers are not allowed, if there aren’t special reasons. But it seems to be a policy that many people take lightly.

Last year, the number of flights to Stockholm as the final destination increased by 14 per

cent, a total of 1 525 one-way trips. This isn’t an isolated phenomenon. The number of domestic flights has continued to increase since 2009.

What’s the point of having a travel policy if it isn’t obeyed?“It’s a worry that Stockholm is our main destination. We should be able to reduce that signifi-cantly, but we can’t forget that the last two winters have been

g uJ o u r n a l 3 | 2012 news 5

The extra fee for a ticket goes to a development project in India that leads to a decrease in climate impact.

T h e m o n e y that GU gets from climate compensation goes to investments in a so called Clean Development Mechanism project, which is approved and examined by the UN and which fulfils the quality label Gold Standard. In total 860 000 crowns went last year to the biomass power plant Sri Balaji in the state of Andra Pradesh in India.

“The condition set is that this leads to certified reductions in emissions that wouldn’t have been possible without the extra money that the project gets,” says Mattias Sundemo at the environ-mental unit.

“The whole idea is to contri-bute to a sustainable development in developing countries and a carbon dioxide friendly techno-logy transfer that leads to a true reduction of emissions.”

T h e s I z e o f the reduction of emissions will depend on how much electricity is produced. The project is calculated to decrease emissions by about 29 000 tons per year.

These emission reductions can then be sold to organisations that want to climate compensate or to countries that have respon-sibilities according to the Kyoto Protocol that they must fulfil.

“The biomass power plant uses residues from farming to generate renewable electricity. The farmers

in the area can sell these residues to the power plant and that beco-mes an extra source of income for the local population,” says Mattias Sundemo.

GU supports an indian envi-ronmental project that gives fewer emissions

Flights to stockholm increased last year by 14 per cent, which goes against gu’s travel policy.

»It isn’t reasonable to expect that we should travel less but rather the opposite.«

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GU’s total emissions of carbon dioxide were 7 869 tons in 2011. Climate com-pensation was in total 3 700 tons of carbon dioxide. How much is that? It corresponds for example to 269 trips around the world with a large SUV, mo-del Hummer H2, or 4 412 two-way trips between Landvetter and New York.

The cost for compensation is 4-6 per cent of the price of the ticket and is paid directly to the travel provider when the trip is booked. To simplify things, GU has set up different stan-dards, where domestic flights are taxed by 27 crowns per flight while in-tercontinental flights cost 344 crowns per flight.

Our top destinations are: 1. Stockholm 2. London3. Umeå 4. Amsterdam5. Berlin

How long are the trips that GU’s em-ployees take by air each year?719 km per employee.Personnel at the Faculty of Fine, App-lied and Performing Arts fly most, on average 956 km per year. They are at the top, together with the Sahlgrenska Academy with respect to domestic flights shorter than 500 km.

More and more people fly to stockholm but total emissions are decreasing

El (439)

Fjärrvärme (2587)

Fossil energi (724,8)

Flyg under 50 mil (358)Flyg över 50 mil (3298)Bilresor (217)

Tåg (0,01)Buss (1,3)

Båtar/Fartyg (243)

Electricity (439)

District heating (2837)

Fossil energy (724,8)

Flights under 50 km (358)Flights over 50 km (3298)Car (217)

Train (0,01) Bus (1,3)

Boats (243)

El (439)

Fjärrvärme (2587)

Fossil energi (724,8)

Flyg under 50 mil (358)Flyg över 50 mil (3298)Bilresor (217)

Tåg (0,01)Buss (1,3)

Båtar/Fartyg (243)

Electricity (439)

District heating (2837)

Fossil energy (724,8)

Flights under 50 km (358)Flights over 50 km (3298)Car (217)

Train (0,01) Bus (1,3)

Boats (243)

Carbon dioxide emissions per emission source (tons)

Electricity (439)

District heating (2587)

Fossil energy (724.8)

Air travel shorter than 500 km (358)Air travel longer than 500 km (3298)Car travel (217)Train (0.01)Bus (1.3)Boat/Ship (243)

tough since so many trains were cancelled. The basic problem is that we don’t have any possibi-lities for sanction. A suggestion that has been discussed is to reallocate the fees for climate compensation so that a person who is taking a long trip doesn’t have to pay as much as a person who is travelling only a short distance. Then we also promote internationalisation.”

According to Eddi Omrcen, it doesn’t have to do with directing

travel but with observing that air travel has an environmental effect and a price.

“You can fly as much as you want, as long as the trips are taxed. My hope is that the extra fee will make people think twice before they book a trip out in the world someplace. Do we really have to travel? Long air flights don’t only have to do with the environment. It’s also a question of work environment and safety for our employees.”

6 Profile

g uJ o u r n a l 3 | 2012 7

n o T o n ly a f r I C a but also the Swedish mountains are important to Gunilla Krantz.

When I call to book a time for an inter-view she’s on a ski trail in Bruksvallarna in Härjedalen. I find that skiing is an integral part of Gunilla Krantz’ life.

We meet later in her work room on Hälsovetarbacken (health expert hill) behind Annedal church in Gothenburg. It’s an apt address for someone who devotes a large part of her waking time to public health.

Gunilla Krantz asks whether I’d like coffee and has a poster of a work of Henri Matisse on the wall.

She was appointed professor in 2011. She thinks it’s a little embarrassing that Gothenburg hasn’t had a professorship in public health before this.

But she’s happy now that the position exists and that she was the one to get it.

T o G e T h e r W I T h h e r two doctoral students from Rwanda, she’ll study the population’s experiences connected with mental health after the genocide in 1994. One question is whether there are any barriers to seeking care.

With money from aid agency Sida, the research team has carried out extensive data collection.

Psychologists have gone around Rwanda and interviewed people in 914 households.

“Everybody is traumatised by this geno-cide in one way or another. During a period of three months a million people were killed in a massacre between different ethnic groups. It was totally awful,” says Gunilla Krantz.

She was in the neighbouring country of Uganda during the summer of the genocide.

“I have strong memories and experiences of what happened on the other side of the border. It showed in southern Uganda. It was a horrible period.”

Gunilla Krantz says that bodies came floating down the Kagera river that runs

from Rwanda and through Uganda.“The river empties into Lake Victoria just

where we lived. I didn’t see the bodies but started to act as a counsellor and listener for two Ugandan rescuers. Together with the people from the fishing villages they had to dig mass graves.”

The villagers also lost their incomes since the fish in the river couldn’t be eaten or sold.

“The two Red Cross people lived in a house next to us and we talked every eve-ning so that they could speak about their experiences.”

r Wa n da I s a densely populated country, with about 10 million people on an area about the size of Småland.

“The country is calm now with a pre-sident that the people trust. There is no visible violence. But post-traumatic stress syndrome is extremely common. People suf-fer from the genocide both physically and psychologically.”

Under the leadership of one of Gunilla Krantz’ doctoral students, the psychologists have asked a number of questions in the households they’ve visited, such as: Have you been taken away from your home against your wishes? Have you seen a close relative die before your eyes? What have you yourself experienced?

“Violence against women usually occurs in the home behind closed doors. And we know from other studies that women are treated with violence in Rwanda. But the extent to which the men there are exposed to violence – we have no idea about that.”

For this reason, the researchers are investigating the vulnerability of both women and men. The interviewers posed questions to both sexes in the age group of 21–35 years.

I T h a s n ’ T b e e n difficult to get people to tell their stories. There are nearly no drop-outs in the study. Only two people have said no.

text AnnikA hAnsson | PhotograPhy JohAn Wingborg

My aFrica“In Sweden we have very low response

rates. And we can’t go around in Kiruna and knock on doors because there’s no one at home,” she says.

In Rwanda, however, where there are neither telephones nor personal identifica-tion numbers, you find people at home.

“The last part of the study is to look at the access to care. The country has extremely small resources for managing psychological ill health. There are only a few psychiatrists in the whole country. There are however quite a few clinical psychologists and mental nurses that put in great efforts.”

Now all the data have been collected and the two doctoral students are going to start analysing the material.

“This project is very close to my heart,” says Gunilla Krantz.

Her relation with Africa began long ago. She visited the African continent for the first time when she was 14 years old. Her father worked there as an economist for the World Bank and different UN organs.

“He worked in Africa almost his entire working life. He took my sister and me out to this part of the world early on.”

G u n I l l a K r a n T z grew up in Saltsjöbaden outside Stockholm. But her mother didn’t want to travel to Africa.

“Mamma said that you can absolutely travel there but you’re going to go to school in Sweden. She didn’t want to sit there as a wife around the pool. So we’ve travelled with Pappa and lived with Mamma. We were in Africa for most of our school vacations.”

Her father, who died a few years ago, was the first generation of aid workers. He lived in Rwanda for four years, but Gunilla Krantz was an adult then and it wasn’t pos-sible for her to visit him.

She thinks it’s exciting to have followed in her father’s footsteps. And she knows he appreciated her choice.

“Yes, it was nice for us to have that in common. Now when I’m in Rwanda I go and wonder where he lived. I know approxima-tely, but not in which house.”

Africa made such an impression on the young Gunilla Krantz that she decided to return as an adult.

part of her heart is in africa, a continent that gunilla Krantz has visited and loved since was 14 years old.

now gothenburg’s first professor of public health wants to find out how the genocide in rwanda has affected the population.

8 Profile

“I had four children so I had to keep calm a few years until the children were a little older.”

She has never moved completely to Africa but worked in many countries for periods with projects that have dealt with teaching or research. Gunilla Krantz began her career as a general practitioner in Lilla Edet. There she saw that many women sought medical care for diffuse symptoms.

“They suffered from fatigue, joint pain, sleep difficulties, depression. It was hard to make a diagnosis.”

Gunilla Krantz thought about whether it could be changed conditions in work life and stress that were behind these women’s problems.

I n T h e b e G I n n I n G of the 1990s she started studies at the Nordic School of Public Health in Gothenburg. It wasn’t long before she found herself teaching there.

“I developed myself on the other side of health. I was a medical doctor and knew all

about the body. But the social factors were much more interesting to me.”

She defended a thesis in Lund in 2000 on women’s disease symptoms.

In 2002 she moved to Stockholm and the Centre for Health Equity Studies that is run by Stockholm University and the Karolinska Institute. She stayed until 2006. She was tired of commuting from the large house in Ljungskile where several of her children still lived at home. A position at the University of Gothenburg suited her well, so she was back on the west coast.

Gunilla Krantz’ research has more and more started to be about violence in close relationships. One project investigates Swedish men’s and women’s vulnerability to violence.

“No such study has ever been done in Sweden,” says Gunilla Krantz.

She says that the idea that women almost never use violence isn’t true.

“In Sweden the debate about violence has focused on the most serious violence and that’s used by men. They try to control their partner or former partner.”

But when Gunilla Krantz investigated this, she found remarkable information.

“Just as many men as women report that they are exposed to physical violence,” she says.

I asked whether I heard wrong, and Gunilla Krantz repeats her answer.

Between 8 and 9 per cent of those asked in her study say that during the most recent year they have been exposed to physical violence in a close relation, and that’s true for both men and women.

W I T h r e G a r d T o psychological violence, between 27 and 28 per cent report that they have been exposed to violence by their part-ner or former partner. Here, there are more men than women that report this exposure.

“We’ve also seen that, of the men who

have been exposed to violence, 63 per cent report that they also use violence. But when we ask the women the same question, 39 per cent of those exposed says that they use violence themselves. It’s extremely interesting.”

The material has not yet been published but is in the “pipeline,” as Gunilla Krantz puts it.

The question is why this information hasn’t been brought forward earlier.

According to Gunilla Krantz, this may be because research on violence in Sweden has focused on investigating the victims of violence.

“If you only study the ones who have made reports to the police, you have no idea of how common this is. We’ve instead made population studies where we investigate a part of the population.”

Gunilla Krantz points out that the earlier population study in the area, Slagen Dam (hit woman), which came out eleven years ago, studied only women’s vulnerability.

Now she wants to go further and investi-gate what lies behind the numbers. Are men and women really equally vulnerable? What does the violence look like? What injuries are there? In what situations does the vio-lence occur?

“To be able to prevent this, we have to have knowledge about the patterns,” she says.

o n e o f h e r doctoral students will make deep interviews with men who have been exposed to violence. They will be asked ques-tions about whether they’ve dared to talk about it and whether they had sought care.

Gunilla Krantz glows with energy and a zeal to work.

“I work all the time. My husband doesn’t really appreciate it. But I like having a lot of irons in the fire and seeing to it that things get done. And I like the connection between research and education. It’s fun to have these good students who reflect and think.”

But still she is free sometimes, and then she likes to get exercise, watch movies, go to the theatre and to operas and read books.

The three grandchildren are also among the happy things in her life.

“Three little boys have been born in the space of one and a half year. It’s gruesomely exciting! Immensely fun!”

And then there is this thing with skiing. The week after our meeting she’ll be off to her house in the mountains of Härjedalen.

“I’ll work and I’ll ski a little at lunchtime. It’s completely quiet there – no one bothers me and it’s so beautiful. It will be creative. You think so well when you’re out on skis.”

She’ll return to Kigali in Rwanda in June and to the School of Public Health.

G U n i l l a K r a n T z

n e Ws: Was appointed in 2011 to gothenburg’s first professorship in public health. Will be installed as profes-sor in may.

aG e: 62 years. “i don’t intend to retire for a good while. but i could consider starting up something new in the fu-ture. hotel and restaurant maybe…no, that wouldn’t be possible. but it would be fun to have a nice place…maybe i’ll open a bakery.”

b o r n: in saltsjöbaden.

lIV e s: in ljungskile.

fa m I ly: partner and four children.

o CC u paTI o n: medical doctor and professor of public health.

baC KG ro u n d : medical doctor with special com-petence in general and social medicine. Defended her thesis in lund in 2000. has worked among other places at the nordic school of public health and the Centre for health equity studies in stockholm. Commissioned con-sultant for Who and sida.

I nTe r e sT s: skiing, film, theatre, opera, literature.

sTr e n GTh: “see possibilities more than difficulties and take hold of those possibilities when i see them.”

W e a K n e s s: “Want to do everything now. but now never ends. and solving all problems right now can be at the cost of quality. try to learn to wait with things until tomorrow.”

a fr a I d o f: “tons of things. that something undesira-ble will happen with the family.”

faVo u r ITe fo o d : filet of cod with horseradish, mel-ted butter and mashed potatoes.

m o sT r eC e nTly r e a d b o o K: Mornings in Jenin by susan abulhawa. “good book, very well written.”

m o sT r eC e nTly s e e n fI lm: Apflickorna (she monkeys)

faVo u r ITe m u s I C: “opera. verdi. all of verdi’s ope-ras are fantastic things.”

»Just as many men as women report that they are exposed to physical violence.«

g uJ o u r n a l 3 | 2012

peace researcher becoMes pro Vice-

chancellor

discussing, listening and a knack for pushing things forward. the-se are some of the characteris-tics that helena lindholm Schulz says she has. and a genuine interest in global questions.

with her 48 years, she is the youngest pro vice-chan-cellor ever at the university of gothen burg.

text AllAn Eriksson | PhotograPhy AnnA-lEnA lundqvisT

10 report

e d e C I d e T o meet in her old

work room at the Department of

Global Studies. It’s messy, full of piles

of papers and books everywhere.

“I’m hardly here now. I’m going to clean the room but the question is what to do with all the books.”

A few weeks have passed since a broad majority of the examination assembly stood behind Helena’s candidacy. She doesn’t think it’s strange that she’s the youngest person that’s ever held the post.

“I started early, quite simply. I was young when I became head of department and now when I’ve advanced I’m maybe relati-vely young. Although it doesn’t feel like it.”

The time was ripe, she says calmly. After having directed the Faculty of Social Sciences for six years, been on the Faculty Association for twelve years and been head of a department for several years, she wants to go forward and tackle new challenges.

“I was alone in being on both the Faculty and Department Boards at the same time, since I was considered to have a great deal of integrity. In perspective I can feel that it wasn’t very suitable.”

h e l e n a l I n d h o l m s C h u l z started to study at the University of Gothenburg during the middle of the 1980s. It was obvious that the subject would be international relations.

“I’ve always been interested in interna-tional questions and in the world, since I was quite young. I learned an unbelievable amount in my studies in international rela-tions and the feeling was that I in a way was at the centre of the world.”

Helena can’t really say what her interest initially came from. Perhaps it was her mother’s humanistic attitude to life and that there was a great interest at home in politics and the world. She remembers that tv pictures of the genocide in Cambodia made a great impression on her when she was young.

When she was a student she joined the Swedish Peace and Arbitration Society. She went to Israel on a peace trip, participated in demonstrations and travelled with Palestinian organisations out around the West Bank and visited refugee camps.

“I’d never set my foot there before, but it was powerful and poignant. You felt so close to the intensity of the conflict. Then I decided to do a doctorate on the Israel-Palestine conflict.”

Helena doesn’t see it as a problem that she’s taken a clear position for the building of a Palestinian state.

“The only solution to the conflict is buil-ding a Palestinian state in one or another way. I’m against the oppression that results from the occupation, but at the same time it’s a conflict about land, where both have a right to the land. But you have to realise that it’s an asymmetrical conflict, with one strong and one weak part.”

Helena Lindholm Schulz says that she’s not particularly hopeful about a solution coming very soon.

“It’s a very difficult position. A hard Israeli government and an American policy that hasn’t succeeded in unlocking the positions. The international pressure ought to be tougher, but the interest of the world today isn’t really as strong as it was a few years ago.”

In recent years Helena Lindholm Schulz has been encouraged to look for a position as pro vice-chancellor or vice-chancellor at other colleges and universities. She was forced to say no recently to the job of vice-chancellor at University West for family reasons.

So what was it that made you want to go further?

“I think it’s fun to try to contribute to good conditions because we must have edu-cation and research of the best quality. It’s fun to make an impact and have influence.”

You mean, to have power?“Yes, having influence is having power,

but not power for its own sake.”

Why did you say yes to the job in spite of being critical of the re-organisation?

“What I was very critical of was the first suggestion of a combination of the three faculties. That was really poorly thought through. I’ve also been critical of other parts of the process, but now on the whole I believe that much of it can be good. I think that it’s good that GU gets to be more uni-fied and that power over certain questions is moved out to the departments, where activities are run.

It’s important that there are different opinions in a management team, not least at GU which is a very heterogeneous organisa-tion. The management has to have a cross wind of ideas and opinions but in the end it of course has to be the pro vice-chancellor that takes responsibility for the decisions that are taken.”

An answer to the question about what

complementary characteristics she has compared with the Vice-Chancellor comes quickly.

“I come from the humanity-social science area, I have a good base there. I believe that we can complement each other’s types of personality, but I think new processes need to be given more time, the re-organisation has gone too fast. But, on the other hand, it can’t drag out too long.”

It’s clear that Helena Lindholm Schulz will have responsibility for internationa-lisation issues, which she will take over from advisor to the Vice-chancellor Claes Alvstam.

What do you want to work for?“In both the short and the long term,

internationalisation is completely decisive for our success. This has been established in many studies, as well as in Vision 2020. I prefer to speak about about globalisation rather than internationalisation since it has to do with larger processes and greater mobility than merely bilateral exchanges. It has to do with many different actions, big and small things.

Such as?“According to RED 10 we’re bad at inter-

national recruitments – we have to do be better. At the same time we have to develop a good support structure that makes us able to help researchers and teachers come here, such as find housing, seeing whether a job can be arranged for the family of the person and perhaps offer higher salaries. We can also be better at supporting our researchers in publishing in international journals and there’s much left to do to stimulate student exchange. But it also has to do with content and substance: that we educate our students to be a part of a reality and an environment that is globalised.”

What is GU’s greatest challenge?“It’s globalisation, in its different dimen-

sions. In the past years, GU hasn’t proved itself so well in the competition when it has to do with large research applications. We have to strengthen research and be better at presenting the research we have. Compared with Lund University, we have considerably smaller research funding. We also have to get better self-confidence and really see and lift up all the things we do fantastically well.

Other challenges are that we have to think about what the core of our mission is. What position should we take toward independent courses and programs, how can we promote lifelong learning, how

g uJ o u r n a l 3 | 2012 11

n e w p r o V i c e - c h a n c e l l o r

on april 27 the university board decided to appoint helena lindholm schulz to pro Vice-chancellor and deputy Vice-chancellor. on july 1 she will take over after lennart Weibull, who will end his pro Vice-chancellor period. her appointment follows Vice-chancellor and applies for 3 years.

can we create more multi-faculty teaching programs or do we maybe have too many education programs.”

What is your view of the values of the University?

“For me it has to do with concepts and features such as curiosity, a striving toward knowledge and development of knowledge, critical questioning, reflection and inde-pendence. In the times we live in, with a stronger pressure on commercialisation, competition and more market thinking, it’s even more important to emphasise and underline the basis for our activities, to try to find new ways to express and formulate the university’s role in society.”

How can the University show trust in their researchers – dare to let them do what they believe in and decrease the charges for indivi-dual researchers?

“It’s obvious that we trust our resear-chers but we must be better at asking researchers what it is that leads to success-ful results. If the administration is heavy we have to try to be better at supporting them.”

What can you in GU’s management do to increase women’s chances of making a career on equal terms with men?

“I don’t have any immediate recipe. We’ve fought with these questions for years. But it’s time for strong actions to increase equality and there are different paths that can be followed, but a possibility is of cour-se to look at the extent to which women do research after getting their doctorate, how much they teach and have administration in their position. A goal should be to have an equal distribution of sexes in the position of director of studies. At the same time, all faculties are not the same and different kinds of actions will be needed. This will be a prioritised issue for me.”

Helena Lindholm Schulz isn’t counting on having any honeymoon.

“It’s going to be a tough fall, now when the new organisation is to be formed and put in place. There will surely be certain turbulence. But it’s going to be fantastically fun to get to work in the highest manage-ment of GU. Tremendously challenging. At the same time I feel humility in the face of the task and I am very happy for the trust from the examination assembly and the Board. I’ve promised one thing: I will listen very carefully.”

h e l e n a l i n D h o l M s c h U l z

aG e: 48

n e Ws: Pro Vice-chancellor

baC KG ro u n d : Defended her thesis in 1996, professor in peace and development research in 2006, oriented toward the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

fa m I ly: Two children 16 and 12.

lIV e s: Rurally in Torred/Kullavik

I nTe r e sT s: Everything that has to do with my children, social questions, the world, reading, getting exercise, making food, the family’s horse and dog.

u n s u s peC Te d Ta le nT: Everyday logistic planning.

m oT To : It has to be the golden rule: “Everything you want people to do for you, you should also do for them.”

h e l e n a o n :

sTu dy fe e s fo r I nTe rnaTI o nal sTu d e nT s:A big mistake.

aC a d e m I C fre e d o m:Absolutely decisive.

I nVe sTI G aTI o n o f auTo n o my:does this actually mean greater freedom? Think that governing has increased.

r an KI n G s:here to stay, but needs critical questioning.

Co m m e rC IalI saTI o n o f Th e s eC To r:i talk preferably about utilisation, which is broader.

s I d e lI n e s:important possibility for indivi-dual cooperation, but caution must be exercised.

re s e arC h TI m e fo r all Te aC h e r s:The ideal – all lecturers do re-search at least in some part, but it’s difficult to achieve.

12 report

text EvA lundgrEn | PhotograPhy AnnA-lEnA lundqvisT

The next big breakthrough in cancer research is unlikely to be a cancer researcher,says Martin bergö, göran gustafsson Prize winner.

g uJ o u r n a l 3 | 2012 13

“I’ve been high on feelings for several days,” explains cancer researcher martin bergö. he’s just received the Göran Gustafs-son prize in medicine, the largest national natural science award in the country.his primary interest is in a handful of enzy-mes and why they exist at all.

e a C h C e l l I n all living things has about a hundred different so called CAAX proteins. Mutations in one of these, the RAS protein, is behind about a third of all forms of cancer.

“Progeria, premature aging, also depends on mutations in a similar protein,” explains Martin Bergö, Professor of Molecular and Clinical Medicine. These diseases have previously been studied separately but now we’ve started to investigate them together. Children who suffer from progeria get age-related diseases, for example in the heart and vessels, but not cancer. Why?”

For proteins to function they have to be in the right place in the cell. This takes place with the help of five different enzymes. Martin Bergö’s research group made an unexpected discovery a few years ago: if one of these enzymes was blocked, the CAAX proteins can even lead to rheumatoid arthritis.

“When a result contrasts with the traditional view, it’s important to carefully investigate that you haven’t made mistakes. We’ve done that and the discovery remains. It will be important for the understanding of how two groups of medicines, statines and bisphosphonates, function. These medicines are given to patients with high blood choles-terol and osteoporosis. They belong to the most used prescribed medicines in the world but sometimes have difficult side effects, that now we maybe can begin to understand. But it also means that we have to think more about why evolution developed these enzymes at all. Perhaps their task is to inhibit proteins sooner than to activate them.”

m a r T I n b e r G ö has been at the Sahlgrenska Academy’s cancer centre for a year, where researchers who have devoted themselves to roughly the same things are gathered. It’s cramped, but good research doesn’t have anything to do with fashionable offices, he points out.

“We hope to recruit a few more good researchers. Then there will be even less

room, but all the more exciting conversa-tions.”

Even if Martin Bergö is pleased to call himself a cancer researcher he’s careful to say that a researcher has to follow his results regardless of where they lead. His own experiments for example have just as much relevance for arthritis and progeria as for cancer, at least until now.

“I have no idea where the next big breakthrough in cancer research will hap-pen, but suspect that it won’t be a cancer researcher that makes it but somebody who works with completely other things. But if you carry out your experiments in the right way, it doesn’t matter what results you get – they’re always interesting.”

T h aT ’ s W h y Martin Bergö is critical of the huge investments in enormous consortiums that have been popular in the past decade, such as in the EU, but also the strategic projects in Sweden.

“There’s absolutely no evidence that these efforts lead to the biggest discoveries! Universities are also forced to put a lot of time and money into investigations in all possible areas: organisation, sustainable development, globalisation and so on. All this requires resources that instead could have gone to the most important things: that is research and education. If we’re going to be more competitive there’s only one thing to do: invest in really good indi-viduals or research groups without forcing

them into cooperation that might look good on paper but that doesn’t actually work. But cooperation that takes place in on-going research is of course important.”

To be really successful Martin Bergö thinks that we also have to attract star researchers from the world elite.

“A researcher like that might cost 50 mil-lion crowns in a start-up grant, and there are probably people who would wonder why an outsider should get so much money. But a world star would lift all of us! Even if he or she is in a completely different area than my own, my research group would benefit by the investment. As it is now we can attract foreign researchers that already have a connection to Sweden. But hardly any others.”

Over the years Martin Bergö has received several awards, among them the Erik K. Fernström prize for young researchers and the Albert Wallin science prize. He’s also one of few who has received funds from the European Research Council’s investment in young researchers.

“That grant will soon be used up, so the Göran Gustafsson prize, with a research grant of 4.75 million crowns, comes at a very good time.”

But despite his success Martin Bergö sees himself as much as a humanist as a biologist.

“I give lectures on how to write good applications and I really encourage my stu-dents to read a lot because, even if the lang-uage in a poem or a novel is very different from what you use in an application, it’s still important to understand what makes a text interesting and worth reading.”

n o W o n d e r h e doesn’t have much leisure time over for anything but the family. But two hours every Friday afternoon Martin Bergö has the house to himself.

“Then I enjoy a good wine while I listen to classical music, maybe something really beautiful by Brahms or Schubert.”

The Göran Gustafsson prize also means a personal prize that this year was raised from 100 000 to 250 000 crowns.

“One of the things we’ll do is fly to San Francisco. That’s where I did my post doc work and the children were born there. We haven’t been able to visit since we moved seven years ago, although we talk about it all the time. So now it’s time to do it.”

M a r T i n b e r G ö

n e Ws: Göran Gustafsson prize winner in medicine, which is a 4.5 million crown research grant and 250 000 crowns in personal funding.

fa m I ly: Wife and two children.

I nTe r e sT s: Family, literature and music (especially Russian), diving.

Cancer researcher who goes his own way

14 report

are there connections between handicrafts and computer programs? david mcCallum does research in creating events in the area of digital representation at the school of photography.

“ I T ’ s I n T e r e s T I n G how we develop things that already exist and function. With electric sewing machines it’s more difficult to decide the speed when we sew, the control over the processes is not as good,” says David when I delightedly comment on the beautifully decorated, black foot-run sewing machine. It’s placed in the centre of the studio on Stigbergsliden where we meet. The office of the School of Photography is unfortunately not adapted to be an atelier, so when the chance to rent a room at the atelier association for art came up David moved in with his paraphernalia.

David is interested in intersection between handicraft, particularly textile, and calcula-tion methods. The title of his work is The Intersections of Craft and Computation. When he did a Master of Arts and Technology at Chalmers between 2003 and 2005, all work at the computer had a negative effect on his body. Knitting, the foundations of which he learned from his mother as an eight-year-old, then became an antipode to the static computer work. He soon discovered that he thought in a similar way when he knitted as when he worked with computer software. He became curious and wanted to investigate. David shows me two of his works, a photograph of Canada’s prime minister and the start picture when you start the old computer model Commodore 64.

a f T e r a f e W y e a r s back in Canada, working, among other things, as editor-in-chief of the music magazine Musicworks, a possibility came up thanks to digital representation at the research school of the Faculty of Fine, Applied and Performing Arts. Returning to Sweden was natural.

“I would have been able to investigate and work with textiles in Canada but it would have been much more difficult than here in Sweden. There’s a rich weaving tradition and other forms of crafts,” David explains. There are hangings on the walls of the atelier. The computer, an important tool, books on weaving and some 16-millimeter films on weaving are on the bookshelf and a large, black projector on the floor.

He learned the ground of weaving from

text hElEnA svEnsson | PhotograPhy JohAn Wingborg

He weaves algorithms

g uJ o u r n a l 3 | 2012 15

Birgitta Nordström at the School of Design and Crafts in 2011. We look at black and white houndstooth checks that together build a long handing. With a keyboard connected to the computer, David creates different patterns depending on which controls he touches.

“It’s like a family with houndstooth as a base. I think it’s fascinating and magical that simple rules can give rise to complex structu-res. I see the patterns as an algorithm or an equation similar to the way that a computer works. One number changes and you get other behaviours,” he explains.

The patterns are saved in the computer and can be sent to the loom at the School of Design and Crafts. When I ask whether he ever uses colours in his works he says that he may start in the future.

“Now I’m in an experimental phase and choose the patterns that I think are interes-ting.”

daV I d s ay s T h aT his inspiration can come from anywhere. One day last year he looked with a magnifying glass at a satin weaving and the idea for the exhibition and the work The Powers of Satin was born. A similarity with rope was remarkable in the threads he saw in the magnifier. At the library at the school he weaved a 2 x 3 metre large piece of satin with 10 millimetre thick cotton rope in a frame.

He wanted to show how satin, which like twill and plain weave, is a basic weaving met-hod and describes how threads are combined, look when they’re magnified. A hand woven small piece of silk satin and the weaving nota-tion for the satin code was also exposed. The work became an investigation of the algorith-mic structure of satin textile. A sample hangs over the door that he takes down, it weighs quite a bit. I can feel and really see how the threads run under and over.

“Something interesting occurred during the work,” he says and shows me a picture in the computer of the satin weave. “I made an error that created an extra marked line in the weave that repeated itself,” he says and points at the screen.

“It was exciting, because it was a bug in a computer program, something small that became something large. Now the deeper relations bet-ween textile and computer were strengthened.”

David’s electric guitar with amp stands in a corner. Music means a great deal to him.

“In Canada I studied composition, both for electronic and acoustic music, and did a Bachelor in physics. I see myself most as a musician and approach other fields most often through my perspective as a musician,” David says.

W e m e e T by chance that evening in the pause at Stadsteatern. After the performance I see him taking photographs of one of the theatre’s carya-tids in the moonlight.

“Photography is one of my coming projects,” he says and smiles his warm smile before walking away toward Poseidon. The clouds rush dramatically over the art museum. New, creative discoveries wait for David, who has curiosity in his heart.

DaV i D M c c a l l U M

o CC u paTI o n: Doctoral student in digital repre-sentation, school of photography.

aG e: 32.

fa m I ly: engaged.

oTh e r I nTe r e sT s: plays guitar, bakes bread and takes singing lessons.

m o sT r eC e nT Th e aTr I C a l pl ay: Bibeln, gothenburg stadsteater.

m o sT r eC e nT Co n C e rT: arrington de Dionyso at Koloni, sjömans church.

m o sT r eC e nT T V s h oWs: Game of Thrones and Clone High.

m o sT r eC e nT fI lm: Downfall.

o d d faC T s: owns four foot-controlled sewing machines and has a sour dough in the refrigerator.

wo r D l i sT

Kypert and tuskaft: basic bonds in weaving.

houndstooth: a pattern that builds figures that are reminiscent of teeth and consist of horizontal and vertical repeated geometric forms.