An intensive work was carried out at Dean’s office and the departments now at the end of this year to reach the last possibility to submit our positions to the KTH Faculty Council, at their last meeting for the year which was held on December 8. Some of these recruitments were part of the normal strategic faculty plans that are made at each department. In these plans we consider both how many faculty members that will retire within the coming years, the needs in research and education at the departments as well as the general needs in the industry and society. It should be mention that the role of The Faculty Council is to judge if the new position is part of the future strategic plan of the department to meet the demands in research and education. However, they also judge whether the financial body of the department is large enough to host another faculty position.
On December 8, four “normal” strategic faculty positions were put forward to the Faculty Council. Professor Pontus Braunerhjelm and his co-workers at the Department of Industrial Economy and Management submitted two positions: an Assistant Professorship in Industrial Economy with Focus on Entrepreneurship and an Associate Professor in Industrial Economy with a Focus on Supply Chains. Also, Professor Björn Palm and his co-workers at the Department of Energy submitted an Associate Professor position focusing on Energy and Sustainable Development and Professor Mauro Onori and his co-workers at the Department of Industrial Production submitted an Assistant Professor position in Cloud Based Manufacturing and Robot Technology. The first three positions passed the scrutiny of the Faculty Board and were sent to the next control mechanism at KTH, namely the Employment Council. Their job is to go through the employment profile in detail to make that it is clearly written.
We got some minor complaints regarding the title of the fourth position. It seems like Professor Onori has to modify his visionary “cloud” formulation to something that is more “earthy” (jordnära), so that “the rest of us” can follow his ideas! By the way, this is not the first time this department seems to come up with new ideas before anyone else does. As an example they did lots of research in 3D printing/additive manufacturing many years ago but it was stopped due to lack of interest from society and industry at that time. However, as many of you know they are back in business in this area again, now when the industry and society has caught up with their visions.
On December 8 a historical event also took place, namely that we started the process to build the research at the Department of Applied Mechanical Engineering. This is currently a department that is totally focused on education, but in the strategic plans they will grow in research up to a size of a typical ITM department. This is a huge transformation that will take place the coming years. Here, I would like to stress that Associate Professor Kristina Palm and her co-workers have worked hard for a long time to carefully study the needs of future research at this new research department. As I mentioned before, they have planned seven new faculty positions. Thus on December 8 the following first four positions were put forward to the Faculty Council (note, that at this stage the English names are not finalized):
- Assistant Professor in Operational Production Management (Biträdande lektor i operativ industriell produktionsledning
- Associate Professor in Production Systems Technology (Lektor i produktionssystemteknik)
- Associate Professor in Sustainable Production (Lektor i hållbar produktion)
- Professor in Industrial Production Management (Professor i industriell produktionsledning)
All four of these positions passed the needle’s eye set by the Faculty Council and will now be scrutinized with respect to the formulations of the employment profiles. Thereafter, the will be announced in Swedish and International media in order to attract talented co-workers. To be continued……
Finally, I would like to wish all people at ITM a happy holiday with their family and friends. I am aware of that we celebrate different occasions during this holiday and that we even celebrate the “New Year” at different times. Nevertheless, I hope that you will enjoy “this” particular holiday period.
Pär Jönsson, Vice Dean