In my last blog I discussed how we could collaborate with industry. I wish to continue on the same theme this time. However, now taking the perspective of a person that is working in industry. How can such a person be part of KTH?
There are two main ways, namely an affiliated faculty or an adjunct Professor.
Typically, what happens is that an individual researcher at a department has collaborated with someone in the industry for some time. The person in the industry enjoys giving lectures, supervising students and writing papers in collaboration with KTH researchers, etc. At this point the person discusses with the KTH contact and the closest manager if it would be possible to have a more official connection to KTH.
At this time I am usually contacted by a Department Head that wishes to know which of the two ways are most suitable. Here it is clear that most external people wish to have the title “Professor”. However, we need to make sure that they fulfil all requirements stipulated by KTH. The requirements for becoming an adjunct professor can be found on the KTH home page:
https://www.kth.se/en/samverkan/partnerskap/personrorlighet/adjungerade/adjungerade-professorer-brobyggare-mellan-kth-och-omvarlden-1.329822
Me, the Department Head and the KTH teacher that wish to establish the collaboration carefully go through the persons CV After that, Dekanus Katja Grillner makes a pre-evaluation of the persons CV to judge whether the person has the qualifications of becoming an affiliated faculty or an adjunct professor. Thereafter, the candidate can officially apply for the position. At this stage of the process, one of our ITM administrators, Helena Lundquist or Malin Bolin, will support the candidate and the department to establish and upload the required documents.
If a person becomes an affiliated faculty it opens up the possibilities to carry out more academic work as part of their work assignments. As mentioned before this may include writing papers on collaborations with KTH researchers and co-supervision of PhD students, which both represents activities that helps to boost a person’s CV. Thus, if the collaboration is successful and appreciated from both organisations, the person could apply for an adjunct professorship in the future.
As shown in the link given above, and adjunct professorship application will be evaluated by external experts as well as by Dekanus. If a person passes this evaluation it is most common to have the position for one day a week (20%), but up to a maximum of a 50% position.
We have seen an increase in the number of people that wish to work closer to us at KTH. This is very positive, since they bring their industrial experience into our KTH academic environment. This helps our students to better understand the industrial situation that most of them will work with in the future.
Finally, I wish to say that I hope that you had a fantastic winter break, “sportlov”.
Myself I took one day of to visit the historical places Uppsala and Österbybruk . At the latter place I picked up my son that had taken a one-week course in stone laying. My hope is that I finally get my drive way fixed this summer….
Pär Jönsson, Vice Dean
