A word from the Dean, 14 May 2017

Dear Staff

On Saturday 29 April, the Danish Science Festival (Forskningens Døgn) was held at SDU. The Faculty's events about the mysteries of science attracted great interest, and once again it was confirmed for us that many children and young people are excited about science. Thank you to all of you here at the Faculty who contributed to the Danish Science Festival - your efforts are very important to the Faculty!

By extension, it could be asked: How can children's interest in science be maintained right up to the day when they choose their university study programmes? There are many studies which show that many children start losing interest in engineering and science around the age of 11 or 12 - and this particularly applies to girls. Or rather, their interest begins to waver. It is crucial that the school system, from classes 6 to 7 and throughout high school, can sustain young people's interest in engineering and science. And as a faculty of science, we of course need to be involved in making sure that this happens.

In the previous newsletter, I mentioned that it had been a golden month for the Faculty, with two prestigious grants from the Danish National Research Foundation and the VILLUM Foundation. No sooner had I recovered from that excitement when I heard the news that the Faculty has received 10 grants of nearly DKK 34 million from the Danish Council for Independent Research (DFF). In 2014 and 2015 we received DKK 22 million and 9 millionrespectively, which means that 2016 is the best result we have had for many years. So, back to celebrating, and congratulations to all the new grant recipients! Well done.

Martin Zachariasen, Dean

Photo: Jes Adrian/SDU