Speaking

I believe that universities hold the key to making society better, and I am an ardent and enthusiastic speaker on this point. As part of my work to improve universities, I frequently give presentations on topics including

• leadership development,
• gender equality as a tool for enhancing quality and performance,
• open access and the politics of new ways to distribute scientific results,
• research based education.

In my talks, I tell stories that draw heavily on my experiences in positions of leadership, having served as

• founding director of the University of Tromsø’s first Center of Excellence,
• Pro Rector for Research (roughly Vice President in the U.S. or Pro Vice-Chancellor in Britain),
• a member of the Science Leaders Panel for the European Commission’s genSET project (genderinscience.org),
• head of the Board for Current Research Information System in Norway (cristin.no),
• leader of a national (Norwegian) task force on research-based education (bit.ly/HqdkDg),
• and as a member of many Norwegian and European groups working to improve various aspects of how universities work.

But I do more than tell stories; I tell you about research, too. We know so much about these topics through the hard work of serious scientists, and I believe that we should find our way forward fully informed by the best evidence we have.

I’d enjoy speaking to your group on any of these topics. Please contact me if you’d like to discuss an upcoming event. I speak in either English or Norwegian, whatever suits your audience best.

• A recent talk from a conference on podcasting combines issues around open access with issues about leadership for change, in two parts:

• A recent talk from a conference on Open Access talks about the competitive advantage that this approach could develop, also in two parts:

• A talk to a group of kids about language diversity tells the story of dying languages: