Monthly Archives: August 2015

“I’m allergic to everything that is called mandatory!”

Jone Trovik, portrett til disputasThis statement came from an otherwise sober-minded fellow professor when I discussed the impending EUU seminar (or teaching days for academic staff at K1 and K2). The wording in K2Nytt 34 was: “The teaching days are mandatory for teachers in main positions.”

Research (gaining new knowledge) is of course highly rated in our university environment and merits are measured with publication points, annual PhD degrees and research awards. But knowledge must be communicated (taught) and the university as the highest level educational institution has a particular responsibility to provide updated scientific but also educational excellence in teaching! We know that we value expertise, but what about teaching methods? Have we (you …) something to learn?

On the first day (October 1st PM 9-12) of the upcoming seminar (program, registration), a review of the new curriculum for medicine is presented. The first group of students has already started this fall and early on they will attend clinical department rounds, so we will meet them soon. The teaching program will be redistributed within and between semesters, what does that mean for your teaching? Clinical procedures / skills training, how do we train and evaluate this? Decentralized teaching (at Haugesund, Førde and SUS), who is responsible for what?

Today’s students are technological competent and continuously online. Can we utilize that to improve our teaching? On the second day (October 14th) the three other universities will present their experience with E-learning. Canvas is the new E-learning system to be used at UiB and Inspera is our new digital examination platform.

To counter allergia obligatoria, we end with this reformulated call to all with teaching commitments: COME AND BE INSPIRED!

Jone Trovik

Call for Abstracts for 1:st International Conference on Pharmaceutical Bioinformatics, Pattaya, Thailand, January 24-26, 2016

Dear Colleague,

On behalf of the ICPB2016 organizing committee we would like to invite you to submit an Abstract for Oral or Poster Presentation at the 1:st International Conference on Pharmaceutical Bioinformatics to be held in Pattaya, Thailand, during January 24-26, 2016. Continue reading

Welcome back!

Per BakkeI hope you all had a nice summer, and that you have had the chance to recharge your batteries and are ready for new achievements this autumn.
The department has a new administration manager, Julie Stavnes. She used to work in the oil industry, and will be able to see the department administration with fresh eyes. A detailed presentation of her can be found elsewhere in this issue.
Eva Gerdts has resigned as program coordinator after putting in a huge effort over several years, and is replaced by Jone Trovik from the gyn / obs environment.

This autumn there are several important issues for the department. The current strategic plan for K2 expires this year. We need to evaluate to what extent we have reached the goals we set and, not least, prepare a new one. The K2 organization will be adjusted.
The implementation of the new curriculum in medicine is to be implemented.
The focus on applications for external projects must be encouraged.
And not least the tight economy is a theme.I report that K2’s economy is improving. I will come backk to these and other matters later.
Per

K2 paper in NEJM

SimSimon E. Nitter Dankelon Dankel (pictured), Christine Haugen, Gunnar Mellgren and others at K2/the Hormon Laboratoy have participated in a study that was published in New England Journal of Medicine Wednesday evening.
The study describes how a common genetic obesity-variant in the FTO-gene region alters the energy metabolism directly in fat cells, and which genes and proteins that are involved in this new mechanism. Using the FTO-variant as an example, the study presents new  comprehensive strategies to explore and understand the mechanisms of regulatory genetic variants in non-coding DNA, which gives hope of finding a number of new targets for personalized treatment of common                                                                       diseases in the decades to come.

Photo: Jørgen Barth

Lærlinger i ekspedisjonen

Ingvild redigertK2 administrasjonen har fått ny lærling!  Ingvild Lekven Jonsvoll overtar stafettpinnen etter Klaus og Lars i ekspedisjonen i Laboratoriebygget. Vi ønsker Ingvild hjertelig velkommen.

Samtidig gratulerer vi Klaus og Lars med bestått fagprøve i kontorfaget i dag.  Lykke til videre på studier og folkehøyskole og tusen takk for flott innsats og utsøkt service.Lars og Klaus redigert