Head of Department Letter May 2026

Heads of Department meeting

As you may already know, a very large part of my time is spent in meetings. Frequent meetings and more occasional ones – and everything in between. And of course, within that mix there are meetings that are more or less exciting.

At the end of April, I attended one of the more enjoyable meetings. I was in Stockholm, meeting with other heads of physics departments, with KTH as host. KTH has an apartment, the Wallquist apartment, on a rather fancy Stockholm street near the campus, and we were very well looked after from morning to evening. The only thing we had to focus on was talking to one another.

The programme also included presentations by Hans Ellegren, an evolutionary biologist from Uppsala and former Permanent Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, as well as representatives from two of KTH’s local infrastructures: the AlbaNova cleanroom, which is quite different from our NanoLab, and a biophysics laboratory for advanced light microscopy.

We talked about both big and small issues: VR strategies, people, infrastructures and funding, but also about what quality in research actually is, and how we can work together to make the most of today’s realities. We even managed to discuss Chalmers’ new logo.

It was once again rewarding to be reminded that, even though we are heads of department in quite different organisations with different conditions, we share many common challenges. I am also bringing home several ideas that we can continue to discuss.

One discussion that particularly stood out concerned the (limited) possibility of influencing those who make the decisions, and the fact that conversations about academic freedom are most often held between those who are already convinced – that is, those who work within academia.

Two takeaways for physics at Lund University would therefore be to invest more in being visible in Stockholm, where much of the power is located, and to make better use of our alumni. We already have staff members who take on various assignments, for example for the Swedish Research Council, but we are significantly less visible than other institutions located closer to Stockholm. Can – and should – we make it more attractive for our employees to take on these kinds of roles?

When it comes to alumni, quite a lot is already being done at both university and faculty level. But do we have a sufficiently good picture of how those who have studied physics with us, or worked here, are doing? They may have something to tell us – about how the world outside views us – or they may be able to carry knowledge from us into other parts of society.

Else Lytken
Head of Department