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A word from the dean

It’s great to be back

This autumn we celebrate our 50th anniversary as well as the largest study start at the Faculty of Science.

By Marianne Holmer, , 8/29/2024

Dear staff

On Monday we welcomed 542 new Bachelor’s degree students at our faculty. This is a record and we had to divide the students into two groups, as there wasn’t room for everyone in SDU’s largest auditorium, U45.

Thanks to everyone who lent a hand! Many people are involved and much needed on such a day to help with the logistics and not least to guide the new students.

Mayor Peter Rahbæk Juel welcomed the students to the world’s best student city, Odense.

For many years, Peter has been involved in welcoming students at the Faculty of Science, and every year he brings new initiatives to present. This year the focus was on Odense as a green city with the goal of being CO2 neutral by 2030. I think it is something that speaks to our students.

The tutors put on a terrific show, showing love for our faculty and SDU – including some appropriate and fun jabs on our expense.

Unfortunately, I could not attend the introductions to all the programmes, but I am sure that the good atmosphere continued here and that the new students felt that they were well received.

I would also like to thank everyone who participated in the anniversary celebration. Not least to the many people who took care of all the practical things.

It was a fantastic day, where especially the humorous features from the departments served as an icebreaker for the rest of the evening.

I was very happy to hear that many of our younger employees found Jens Oddershede’s historical account of the creation of the faculty and its early period interesting. The story puts the current development of the faculty into perspective.

The features from the departments were very different, but all very funny in each their own way. There were great costumes from Biology, sound effects and technology from BMB, cartoon heroes from FKF and a confused mathematics professor in a lab coat from IMADA.

Mikkel from the faculty administration took the auditorium by storm when he told about the importance of the decision-making octopus in increasing the student intake at our faculty. Mikkel got an award from the audience, and I think we won't need to hire stand-up comedians the next time we have a party, now that we have our own in-house comedian.

Reception, dinner, comedy and dancing – the night was long. Thank you for an incredibly nice party.

Marianne Holmer, dean

Editing was completed: 29.08.2024