External revision and conferences

Annika Lilja

, 2018-03-22

In my last blog I discussed the yearly safety inspections that ITM planned for March. By now we are waiting for the comments from Avanova for each department. Based on this each department will make a plan to correct possible less satisfactorily issues that came up during the inspections.

This time I wish to inform that an external revision of ITM’s work with environment will take place on April 16. The purpose with the revision is to make sure that ITM, as well as all schools at ITM, meet the environmental standards described in the Swedish standard ISO 14001. The ITM work is being administrated by Adde Jeihouni and Charlotte Flodin. Those of you that will be involved have already been contacted and the rest of you will get to know the outcome from the external revision when the report is written.

As a researcher my latest weeks have been full of traveling and new experiences. In the beginning of March I left Stockholm, which had just received lots of snow, to travel to Phoenix in Arizona. This was a contrast since the temperature was 20 to 25 C and the sun was shining all the time. It felt like a great break from the darkness in Sweden. I attended the yearly conference given by the minerals and metals society, TMS2018. It is a huge conference where it is difficult to find people. However, it is also a great meeting place where you can establish new contacts. Here, I presented some work on how to determine inclusion cleanliness online during steelmaking. I got some good input that one of my PhD students could use in the future.

After a short stop in Stockholm I travelled to Japan to attend the annual spring conference organized by the Japanese steel society. I presented some work done by another PhD student on the use of recycled slags for neutralization of waste water in the steel industry. Again, I received very valuable input to the student’s research from the Japanese steel community. Also, I established some contact so that the PhD student can carry out research in Japan 2019, which he really is interested in.

Overall, my presentations and interactions with other researchers have paid off. Not only did I get valuable input that my PhD student scan use, but I also got some new information on new eco-friendly steelmaking processes that I can implement in the education.

/Pär Jönsson, Vice Head of School

Safety inspections

Annika Lilja

, 2018-02-16

Our yearly safety inspections represent an important event to make the working environment at ITM’s offices and laboratories of highest standard to create a safe and inspiring working environment as well as to meet the Swedish law requirements. As a part of these efforts, it is time for our yearly safety inspections at each department. During the safety inspections an expert from Avanova will also participate. The specific days for the safety inspections are the following:

Department of Materials Science and Engineering: Wednesday February 21
Department of Learning: Wednesday March 28
Department of Industrial Production: Wednesday March 7
Deans office education office: Thursday March 8
Deans office Sing Sing: Thursday March 15
Department of Industrial Economy and Management: Thursday March 22
Department of Sustainable Production Development: Wednesday March 28
Department of Energy: Wednesday April 4
Department of Machine Design Wednesday April 11

The outcome of the safety inspections will be a document that summarizes possible corrections that need to be addressed. It is each Department Head’s task to make a plan to specify how and when these corrections should be completed in order to meet our standards as well as to meet the laws and regulations. Please contact your nearest manager if you need more information regarding the safety inspection at your department.

For those of you with kids an important time of the year is coming up next week, namely “sports week” (sportlov). Most of you will most likely plan some winter activities and I wish you a pleasant time. However, I will take a short break in the desert in Arizona. Shorts and t-shirt, swimming in pools, Mexican food… Sounds good or what do you think?

Pär Jönsson, Vice Head of School

Docents, important people in the PhD education

Annika Lilja

, 2018-01-26

Docent is a title, which enables a person to act as a main supervisor for a PhD student. It should be noted that it is only a title and it does not influence the employment of a person. Thus, this enables external people to apply for becoming a Docent. This is a good way for us at ITM and KTH to build strong collaborations with, for example, institutes. We already know that we have many external PhD students today and for example at institutes. If we build up an improved supervision knowledge at the institute the external PhD student can get an improved supervision on the site where they are active, as a complement to the supervision from the KTH supervisor.

The procedure for becoming a Docent has changed from January 1, 2018. Similar to before, the scientific qualifications are judged by an external expert. Thereafter, the Docent Committee’s task is to judge the pedagogical aspects of the person. The committee consists of a chair person, two teacher representatives and one student representative. The latter is selected by the KTH student organization THS, but is most commonly the elective student representative for each doctoral program. Finally, if the Docent title is granted a diploma is presented at a seminar where the candidate gives a lecture.

Currently, we have a dozen of Docent applications that are in progress at ITM. If you wish to learn more about a Docent seminar you have a chance on February 14 at 14.00. Lei Feng will give his Docent lecture and receive his Docent diploma in room B242 at Brinellvägen 83.

I also wish to inform you that Professor Natalia Skorodumova has become a new member of the ITM team this year. She will be the vice chairperson in the recruitment committee for hiring of faculty as well as for the Docent committee.

Finally, I wish to say that it is nice that the days are getting longer week by week. For me the need for day light seems to increase in importance as the year goes by. Is this a sign of that I am getting old or simply a craving for the D vitamin from the sun?

/Pär Jönsson, Vice Head of School

Time for new doctors and professors to celebrate!

Annika Lilja

, 2017-11-21

On November 17 KTH held its annual celebration with respect to the conferment of new doctors and inauguration of new professors. All PhD students that had defended their thesis during the period of October 1, 2016 to September 29, 2017 were invited to the celebration. In total, 198! persons defended their theses at KTH during that time period, whereof 42 were from the ITM school. This is an impressive number of PhD students. As many of you, KTH is among the top three universities in Western Europe when it comes to the number of students receiving a PhD. Thus, KTH and ITM truly have an impact on the higher education in our nearest region. For those of you that currently are studying for a PhD you should look forward to this celebration. When I have talk to doctors throughout the years they often mention this celebration. I have heard words such as “I was happy when I defended my thesis but it did not sink in to me that I actually had become a doctor until I stepped up to the stage to receive a diploma. I was nervous to enter in front of the audience at that moment, but standing there to receive applauses from the audience made me feel warm and proud inside”. I think that most former PhD students finishing a PhD can recognize themselves in those words.

History was also made at KTH and ITM during this ceremony. KTH inaugurated the first to professors at the Department of Sustainable Production Development. Monica Bellgran has obtained the position The Leif Östling professorship in Industrial Production Management and Magnus

Wiktorsson has become a professor in Production Logistics. We welcome both of these new professors to ITM and we are looking forward to follow your future progress.

The formal part of the celebration started at the concert hall in Stockholm. Thereafter, buses took the participants to the city hall. Here, more than 900 people enjoyed a fantastic dinner in the blue hall. Afterwards, a live band played in the golden hall. It was both traditional waltz as well as more modern dance music. Overall, I am convinced that the new doctors and professors will remember this evening for the rest of their lives!

Those of you that are interested in reading more about this and former year’s celebrations can read more here.

As I write this blog the snow is falling outside the window. This is a sign that the fall has left and that we have entered the last season of the year, namely the winter. During this period people like us living close to the “north pole” enters a calmer stage of our lives. It feels so nice to light candles at home and snuggle up in your favorite sofa to read a book. Of course, those of you with young children will be chased outside to enjoy winter activities. Myself, I enjoy to light a fire in my stove and then sit and try to solve a cross word puzzle.

/Pär Jönsson, Vice Dean

KTH’s internal review of the working environment and wellness activities to prepare for the “dark” period!

Annika Lilja

, 2017-10-16

This week KTH will carry out an internal review of the environmental work that is done at ITM, as part of their annually evaluations at all schools. During this review they will discuss many topics as well as meet many people. First, they will discuss how the management of ITM supports the activities with our working environment, including specific groups where we discuss the progress regarding our systematic work focusing on the different part of the environment. They will also review how we work systematically on how to handle waste and to decrease the waste at the departments, handle chemicals, fire hazardous materials, etc. Moreover, how we change our habits to replace travels with web meetings etc. to decrease the impact on the environment. Based on this internal review ITM will make a plan to make improvements to become even better. Remember that all of us as individuals can help to improve the environment by, for example, sort materials instead of throwing them away in the regular trash.

Finally, I wish to say some words about wellness activities to promote your health. You have a description of the wellness activities organized by ITM at the ITM intranet.

In addition, as you all know we are approaching darker days. As the days become shorter and the rain and snow appears we all feel that it becomes more difficult to find the motivation to carry out outdoor activities. Nevertheless, I strongly recommend you to fight that resistance and take a walk to get some fresh air and to catch the few glimpses of sun. When I do it I feel that I get so much energy, which I also hope you do. When it comes to other wellness activities I have given up floorball due to a problem with my knee. Instead, I started weight lifting with my son as the personal trainer. This is not maybe the best choice of trainer, since he enjoys pushing his father to lift heavier and heavier weights!

/Pär Jönsson, Vice Dean of School

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External revision and conferences

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Docents, important people in the PhD education

Time for new doctors and professors to celebrate!

KTH’s internal review of the working environment and wellness activities to prepare for the “dark” period!