Department of Physics and Technology, UiB IFT-posten 21. January 2011

A Word from Department Administration

Strategic commitments at UoB

Many of you have probably read Guri Gunnes Oppegård’s interview with our rector, published in På Høyden on 11. January. Rector promised to change the way university has given priority to certain study areas. Instead of deciding in advance which areas should be prioritized, from now on the positive external evaluations and the granting of external research funding will be the key in deciding which study areas will receive university grants.

This claim has several important implications: research quality will be of even greater importance; ”bragging” will largely be replaced by external fellow evaluation; researchers should be additionally motivated to write good project proposals, thus winning positiexternal assessment. For various departments, this will be another good reason for assessing the use of SAC – Scientific Advisory Committee as one of its strategic tools. This is an external evaluation, not only on individual level, but also of research groups/ subject areas, making the aspect of cooperation more important than ever before. In the times when competition increases and the world keeps getting smaller, this is definitely something worth considering.

Have a great weekend!
Geir Anton

News and general information

Jan R Lien symposium on Friday, January 21, at 14:15 in auditorium B

This year’s open seminars will start as planned, but in a rather special way: Our good colleague and previous department head Jan R Lien plans to retire on March 1.  He spent his last years working primarily at CIPR with reservoir physics, the subject area he personally introduced to the UoB some time in 1980s. Jan was also the key figure in establishing the faculty’s technology-oriented studies and developing them into interdisciplinary study programmes, particularly in the field of petroleum technology. It would be great if as many of you as possible would show up at this lecture, thus participating in our big thank you to Jan for his valuable contribution to IFT and UoB throughout his long professional career! The programme is as follows:

· 14:15 Professor Jan S. Vaagen, UoB: Some Reflections on 1970s

· 14:35 Professor Arne Skauge, CIPR: Jan R Lien’s Research in Reservoir Physics

· 14:55 HoD Geir Anton Johansen: The One Who Left A Mark; NT - TOS - PTEK

· 15:15 Coffee and cake.

Professor Gunnar Løvhøiden from the UoO phoned yesterday afternoon and excused himself for not being able to attend the seminar due to a very nasty flu. We appreciate the fact that Jan S. Managed to fill in for him at such a short notice.

The work on drafting the department’s strategic goals started at full speed

This week the leaders of research groups gathered for the formal start of strategic work which has in many ways been prepared throughout the fall semester of 2010. The reports of the committee evaluating Norwegian research in basic physics, as well as the report of the so-called follow-up committee, will be the key guidelines in this work. In order to ensure a solid basis, it has been decided that several smaller work committees examine the important conditions to be included in the strategic plan. The final result should be a brief and dynamic plan which we intend to adopt at the Department Council meeting in June.

Mark Monday 9. and Tuesday 10. May in your calenders!
We would like to ask all of you employed in over 50% positions to reserve these two days in order to participate in the strategy seminar at Fleischers hotel at Voss. However, there should be a few people left at the department, but this we shall address later. All of you have already been registered for the seminar, and in case some of you want to be exempted, you must have a very good reason to do so. All lectures scheduled for those days should be rescheduled for later.

SPE Bergen One Day Seminar 2011

SPE Bergen welcomes you to submit an abstract for the SPE Bergen One Day Seminar 2011. The deadline for submission is January 25th (note extended deadline).

Climate and Energy Conference:
A Renewable and Future-Oriented Vestland

BKK invites all to the Climate and Energy Conference arranged in cooperation with Bergen Chamber of Commerce

• Wednesday, 26. January 2011, from 09:00- 16:15 at Grieghallen

Registration deadline is 22. Januar with conference fee of 450 NOK and 300 NOK for members of Bergen Chamber of Commerce. More information and registration forms to be found at conference webpage.

Announcement of scholarships for nordic cooperation 2011

All staff and students: Letterstedtska föreningen offers scholarships and grants for study-related travel, seminars, conferences and other forms of nordic cooperation within the field of culture and science. The new deadline is 15. February 2011. You may apply for covering the costs of study-related travel, conferences, seminars, printing, translation work, purchase of books in all nordic institutions and cultural exchanges. More information and a guideline to application procedures can be obtained here.

Laszlo P Csernai has been appinted honorary member

Hungarian Academy and Engineering appointed on 7. December 2010 our professor Laszlo P Csernai as its honorary member. Congratulations!

NB: Register at Cristin - ASAP!

Many of you have probably already noticed that the old Frida for research documentation has been replaced by Cristin which requires of you to logg in as UoB-employees. It is important for accessing all quality assured information already stored there (the data has been transferred from Frida and the ITAR-database – the latter is slightly delayed, which means that all publications sent in 2010 have to be entered manually), as well as for storing new information. In addition to scientific articles, this also refers to chronicles, debates, mediation – including those taking place on radio, TV, etc. One of the advantages of this system is that in cases of several UoB authors signed under the same article, the first mentioned author is responsible for entering the data.

Christie Conference 2011

This year’s Christie Conference, which is the second conference in a row, will be arranged in Grieghallen on 27. April 2011. The perspective for Christie Conference 2011 is: UoB – internationally recognized research university outside the country’s capital. What kind of possibilities and challenges does this claim pose for Bergen, Vestlandet and Norway?

The candidates for the Christie Award can be nominated until February 1.

Staff

New research assistant

Last week, or more precisely on January 17, Jan Lindroos had his first working day as PhD-Research Assistant at our department. He is closely associated with the DAMARA-project.

We would like to wish Jan a warm welcome to our department!

Publications (ISI)

· Aamodt K, Abel N, Abeysekara U, Alme J, Bablok S, Djuvsland O, Fehlker D, Haaland O, Huang M, Kanaki K, Klovning A, Larsen DT, Liu L, Nystrand J, Øvrebekk G, Pommersche B, Skjerdal K, Ullaland K, Wagner B et al. Alignment of the ALICE Inner Tracking System with cosmic-ray tracks JOURNAL OF INSTRUMENTATION Volume: 5 Article Number: P03003