Head of Department’s Letter September 2026

Uncertainties and Opportunities

When I read the latest publications from my mega-experiment, I am once again struck by the same insight that has occurred to me so many times before: in some contexts, the goal is to demonstrate the smallest possible measurement uncertainties in order to showcase the highest possible precision. In other contexts, when dreaming of discovering new physics, one almost hopes that the uncertainties (all right then, mainly those of one's competitors) are large enough to leave room for that new elementary particle to actually exist.

Uncertainty in its many forms has been a recurring theme throughout the spring semester and will, with a high degree of certainty, continue to be so this autumn. We will soon receive decisions on excellence clusters and other major initiatives, on Science Village and the new nanolab. And not least: the Physics Review.

The Physics Review is due to be completed on 14 September, and it will be exciting to see what recommendations the external experts put forward. Although uncertainty can sometimes feel uncomfortable, it also brings new opportunities. It is now that the future is being shaped. What do we want it to look like?

While awaiting the report, the heads of division and much of the Department's management team gathered for a retreat at the end of August. Among other things, we discussed several of the issues already identified by the review panel, including the need for more strategic discussions at an overarching level. We were also joined by several colleagues with an interest in the future of physics: the Head of Medical Radiation Physics, the Head of the Department of Chemistry, and the Heads of Chemical Physics and Nanoelectronics at EIT.

The issues that occupied most of our discussions, and which we hope the review panel will also address, concerned above all the balance between broad and more specialised research. We also discussed the knowledge and skills that future students will need in growing fields such as quantum technology.

Another question was what role the University, and we as researchers and teachers, should play in a future where AI is an integral part of our activities. We also considered which core responsibilities will remain uniquely our own, as well as the challenges of recruitment, skills provision and increasing external research funding.

We may not have found as many answers as we had hoped for, but the conversations generated new perspectives and questions to work on further. During the autumn, we will therefore return to many of these topics, perhaps already through the proposals presented in the review report.

Welcome back to a semester in which expectations of new opportunities are greater than ever.

Else Lytken

Head of Department