Fredric Carlsson, you have been nominated as deputy head of department. If elected, do you look forward to this new role?
Yes, very much so. I see it as an exciting opportunity to be able to contribute to the development of our department. Having over 20 years of experience from science in both academia and industry, and hitting 50 next year, I also look forward to the possibility to learn new things and to develop in a new role.
What do you personally think makes good leadership?
The people that I have gained respect for as leaders have shared some common traits. For example, they have exhibited honesty, clarity of intent and “bondförnuft”. They have been open about their “compass” (that is their focus and priorities) with an ability to spread energy and excitement about work. They have had a genuine interest in people and their ideas, and an ability to talk with all types of people.
What do you see as the biggest challenges for the coming years at the department?
Our department is one of the most successful at Lund University, producing research and teaching at a high international standard. However, we continuously need to evolve to maintain a strong environment. I therefore believe that one never-ending key challenge is to identify and hire promising young scientists and to ensure good conditions for them to develop their research and merit themselves. Also, it is no secret that our economy is currently strained. And so one main challenge for the coming years will be to deal with this challenge in a manner such that our core activities – research and teaching, as well as the third task – are able to keep developing.
Do you have a vision of how the department should be like in the best of worlds?
In the best of worlds, we have the same economic model as today (where teacher positions are fully funded, etc.), a model that I think is key to our department being a great research organisation. Moreover, our economy is great, with all teachers/scientists attracting external grants, and we have a dynamic department that is rich in bottom-up initiatives. All environments within the department have excellent conditions to develop their research and teaching (with a reasonable teaching load). In the best of worlds all employees, independent of category, truly feel that their work is critical for our core activities and our ability to be successful as a department.
What is your favourite thing that comes to mind when you think about your work?
My coworkers, and finding out the result of our next set of experiments! I love discussing new data and hypotheses with coworkers, and to see my students push projects forward and develop into independent and creative young scientists.
