Dear all

I tried to tell you in today unit meeting about possible joint future part-time (20%)  professorship in Oulu. However, due to my unstable connection I am not sure if you heard anything on it.

However, the candidate in concern is professor Torben Røjle Christensen from  Aarhus University  (https://pure.au.dk/portal/en/persons/id(b6b7be53-7869-48a3-875e-76e6e85fc5a5).html). He has a quite impressive CV and list of publications. He has previously been working quite a lot in Oulanka  station. We had yesterday virtual meeting with him together with Laura Kvist and Riku Paavola. We discussed on his research. possible participation in teaching as well as the costs we would incur. We got a very positive picture of Torben and his research. His research could brought us new sights, especially in the field of arctic research. This would apply not only to Ecology & Genetics, but also more broadly, for example to NANOMO (Torben has already been discussing possible cooperation with Nonne Prisle) and Water and Environmental Technology. Torben was also willing participate to teaching, that could be, for example,  “hands on” courses for postgraduate students in Oulanka Station (not just for our students but more broadly). He was also interested in participating in teaching in other courses. Research collaboration, especially in the Arctic field, could be expanded through his collaborative networks and allow, for example, our students to visit in Zackenberg research station in Greenland for Arctic projects (he is the Scientific Director of the station). Torben would also be willing to supervise students and apply for funding to Oulu, for example from the Academy of Finland.

The salary, travel and accommodation expenses of the joints professor would be paid from the  Arcic Interaction Profi-funding for two years.  We reckon that Torben would really be a really good reinforcement to our research unit and university. Thus we have suggested to our dean and vice-professor that we should proceed with hiring him part-time to our research unit for the next two years.

Jouni