Two-day celebration in the City Hall
At the end of September, education and knowledge were celebrated in the Stockholm City Hall when Stockholm University celebrated newly graduated doctors and new professors at two Inauguration and conferment ceremonies. In addition, jubilee doctors were conferred and the Award for Good Teaching was awarded.
The 2021 ceremony took place on Thursday 29 September and gathered around 650 invited guests in the City Hall. Due to the corona pandemic, the ceremony had been postponed. The 2022 ceremony took place the following day, on Friday 30 September, and gathered around 880 invited guests.
“Even though the world situation today is hardly conducive to festivity, I am still grateful that we did not cancel completely or tried a digital ceremony. For if there is something that we learnt over the last few years, besides developing our digital competence and realising that technology is good for a lot of things, it is also that technology is not quite enough when it comes to celebrations”, said President Astrid Söderbergh Widding in her opening speech on Thursday. And she made a quote from the first line of the medieval Latin student song, which also for many years gave its name to Gadden, the Stockholm University student newspaper:
“Gaudeamus igitur – So let us rejoice!”
Research in focus
During the opening speech on Friday, President Astrid Söderbergh Widding highlighted that it is all the present new doctors, professors, honorary doctors and jubilee doctors who have helped move the frontiers of research forward:
“Today, our focus is on research, your research. A university is never more than its teachers and researchers. Today we celebrate all those who have helped make Stockholm University what it is.”
She also mentioned that there have been elections in Sweden and lamented that research-based knowledge was as good as absent from the political debate:
“Both climate and pandemic seemed to have vanished when the politicians outdid each other in various statements which were often contrary to scientifically proven knowledge.”
The President also reminded that in two years from now, it is time for the next research bill and she said that it is high time to come together to formulate and start pursuing those issues which are particularly important from the perspective of the universities, such as free basic research and secured direct government funding for research, research infrastructure, particularly e-infrastructure and continued support for the transition to open science.
252 new doctors and 66 new professors participated
During the two ceremonies in the City Hall, 252 new doctors were conferred. During the period 1 July 2020–30 June 2022 they had defended their theses and received their doctoral degrees at Stockholm University. Also 68 jubilee doctors were conferred, of which 27 in absentia. They received their doctoral degrees at Stockholm University 50 years ago.
66 new professors who took up their duties during the same period were installed.
Research collaboration at CERN
The inaugural lecture during Thursday’s ceremony was given by Sara Strandberg, professor of experimental accelerator-based particle physics at the Department of Physics. She spoke about the search of the smallest particles of the universe and about the international research collaboration at the European Laboratory for Particle Physics CERN in Switzerland, where she herself has her scientific home.
“Being part of a project which is so vast that no country could realise it on their own, is a powerful feeling. But it is also a reason for humility. All the work that I do depends on that of someone else. And my colleagues, in their turn, depend on me to deliver. Together we build something that is bigger than the sum of all its parts”, said Sara Strandberg.
She also emphasized the importance of curiosity-driven research as a fundamental prerequisite for technological development.
Ritual processes and passages
During Friday’s ceremony, Lotten Gustafsson Reinius, professor of ethnology at the Department of Ethnology, History of Religions and Gender Studies, lectured.
She shed light on the field of research on ritual processes, customs and traditions and spoke about how rituals can create hope, among other things based on her work with the exhibition “The Arctic – While the Ice Is Melting” at the Nordic Museum.
“In the exhibition, which is aimed at a wide audience, we have tried to convey both seriousness and hope”, she said.
Ten teachers received the Award for Good Teaching
During Thursday’s and Friday’s ceremonies, the Award for Good Teaching was awarded to recognize good pedagogical efforts and their importance for students’ learning. The 2021 award winners were Matilda Baraibar, Department of Economic History and International Relations, Sören Holst, Department of Physics, Adam Jacobsson, Department of Economics, Christophe Premat, Department of Romance Studies and Classics, and Anna-Lena Ström, Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics.
The 2022 award winners were Katarina Fast Lappalainen, Department of Law, John Fitzpatrick, Department of Zoology, Olov Karlsson, Department of Computer and Systems Sciences, Lena Sjögren, Department of Archeology and Classical Studies, and Oliver Smith, Department of Teaching and Learning.
Nine honorary doctors were conferred
At the ceremony on Friday, nine honorary doctorates were conferred, all of whom have contributed in distinctive ways to the University’s activities in research and education.
The honorary doctors, who were already appointed in 2020, are Jane Gaines, professor of film, Lars Hörngren, doctor of economics and senior advisor, Yuto Kitamura, professor in comparative education, Karen Kohfeld, professor of resource and environmental management and environmental science, Fernando Martín, professor at the chemical department, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Joanna Rose, science journalist and author, John Rubinstein, professor at the Departments of Biochemistry and Medical Biophysics, University of Toronto, Tobias Svanelid, journalist, and Ann Åberg, preschool teacher, lecturer and author.
Honorary doctorates at Stockholm University in 2022.
The ceremony was followed by a banquet in the Golden Hall. The entertainment during the evening was provided by the Brass Ensemble at the Royal College of Music, the University College of Opera and the Stockholm Academic Male Chorus.
Stockholm University’s large gold medal 2022 was awarded to former senior judge Richard Ljungqvist.
Stockholm University’s gold medal in the 8th size 2021 was awarded to Denny Vågerö, professor of medical sociology at the Department of Public Health Sciences, and Cynthia de Wit, professor of environmental science at the Department of Environmental Sciences.
Last updated: October 7, 2022
Source: Communications Office