Published 15 June 2015 We tend to favour ourselves and our own group. We also underestimate future risks. So says evolutionary biologist Jessica Abbott about human ability – and inability – to deal with global challenges. Evolutionary biologist Jessica Abbott. “Compared to other anthropoids, such as chimpanzees and gorillas, we are skilled at resolving conflict. We can put our own personal interes

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/sustainability-must-not-be-too-taxing - 2025-04-01

Published 15 June 2015 “Solar energy has great potential in Sweden. The fact that we use solar energy to a lesser extent than many other European countries is not due to lack of sun, but due to lack of knowledge”, says architect Jouri Kanters who has mapped what politicians, urban planners, builders and architects should be better at in order for Sweden to use more solar energy. A far too rare sig

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/lack-knowledge-explains-low-utilisation-solar-energy - 2025-04-01

Published 15 June 2015 Exporting the Swedish welfare model is not a good idea. At least not as a recipe for achieving a more sustainable society, says Professor Max Koch, manager of a research team that links the climate crisis with welfare. Sweden’s relatively low carbon emissions, despite a high gross domestic product, are partly due to the use of hydropower – a competitive advantage that cannot

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/measuring-success-terms-economic-growth-devastating-our-climate - 2025-04-01

Published 25 August 2015 An antibody that did not fulfil its purpose against the disease multiple sclerosis, MS, instead made its big break in cancer research and is now starring in southern Sweden’s largest licensing agreement in Life Science history. The “father” of the antibody is Professor Carl Borrebaeck. Carl Borrebaeck. Photo: Gunnar Menander It is one of the windiest days in late summer, a

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/successful-antibody-behind-billion-crown-life-science-deal - 2025-04-01

Published 11 September 2015 The mountainsides are on fire. In the village below, activities are in full swing: women and men working in the fields, fishing in the river, and herding cattle along the grassy wetlands. The painting took four days to produce during fieldwork in Tanzania. Emma Johansson Li, a researcher in physical geography, has dedicated her research to land grabbing. During her most

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/physical-geographer-uses-art-her-research - 2025-04-01

Published 11 September 2015 What’s the point of having lots of higher education credits if you don’t use them to make the world a little better? Activism and academia go together, according to student Johannes Witkowsky-Bengtsson. Johannes Witkowsky-Bengtsson. “As a child, I dreamed of fighting side by side with the Apache indians”, Johannes laughs. Now he is studying theology and sociology, and h

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/activism-and-academia-go-together - 2025-04-01

Published 11 September 2015 “My first project was about giving poor families in Thailand the opportunity to send their children to school. A student and I helped set up chicken farms at the schools, which the children took care of. The money they earned by selling the eggs on the markets covered their school fees”. Leif Bjellin. Photo: Gunnar Menander So says Leif Bjellin, now retired from Lund Un

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/helping-earthquake-victims-nepal - 2025-04-01

Published 11 September 2015 Kurds, human rights, nationalism and democracy are sensitive subjects. At least in Turkey today. When political scientist Umut Ozkirimli engages in his third mission as an academic, i.e. taking part in public debate, he gets death threats. At the moment, he receives as many as ten such threats per day. Umut Ozkirimli. Umut Ozkirimli, a political scientist from Turkey sp

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/people-are-trying-silence-me - 2025-04-01

Published 11 September 2015 Close proximity between the laboratory and the clinic, an identity that is tied to the division and not only to the different research groups, and lunch conversations about everything between heaven and earth. Thoas Fioretos, Felix Mitelman and Fredrik Mertens. According to three professors, these are some of the reasons why the Division of Clinical Genetics within the

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/stimulating-environment-key-success-clinical-genetics - 2025-04-01

Published 11 September 2015 Being younger women working in a division with all male senior professors has not bothered Anna Andersson and Kajsa Paulsson. They describe the division as unusually free from internal competition. Kajsa Paulsson and Anna Andersson. “Researchers always compete over money to some extent, but we are not that competitive here. We have deliberately divided the field so that

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/little-internal-competition-leads-good-atmosphere - 2025-04-01

Published 11 September 2015 The key to increased well-being in Africa lies in improving small scale farming – at least if you want to see improvements within a foreseeable future, according to Göran Djurfeldt. Together with Ola Hall, he has now launched a project using drones to understand why harvests vary so much from one field to the next, despite apparently similar conditions. Ola Hall and Gör

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/drone-images-could-solve-african-farming-mystery - 2025-04-01

Published 13 October 2015 “Wait, wait, come here! And then you go under there, good, and now you can jump…” instructs Daniela Chiang and bursts out laughing when coursemate Malaley Rahmani stumbles and collapses in a giggling heap on the floor. It is Monday afternoon at the Centre for Chemistry and Chemical Engineering and about 40 Master’s students of food technology are practising group dynamics

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/project-reports-lth-have-improved-thanks-sports-psychologist - 2025-04-01

Published 13 October 2015 As part of efforts to modernise its healthcare services, Russia is striving to improve radiation protection. Lund University is helping towards a successful outcome. Aleksandr Vodovatov has a key role in work to establish national guidelines for x-radiation at Russian hospitals. He is carrying out part of his research project at Lund University. Many people in Russia are

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/doctoral-student-set-improve-radiation-protection-russian-healthcare - 2025-04-01

Published 13 October 2015 Better drugs, new smart materials, more jobs and increased visibility for the region. The expectations and challenges for MAX IV and ESS are manifold, but so are the opportunities. The research project Exploring Challenges with New Big Science which studied the realisation of Lund’s new research facilities from an interdisciplinary perspective was recently completed at th

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/feminist-perspective-male-dominated-facilities - 2025-04-01

Published 13 October 2015 “We have to become much better at actively pursuing human rights issues in the public debate”, says Morten Kjaerum who since last spring is new director at the Raoul Wallenberg Institute in Lund. His goal is to make the Institute more visible: within the University, locally, nationally and internationally. Morten Kjaerum at Raoul Wallenberg Institute LUM’s meeting with Mo

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/raoul-wallenberg-institute-has-become-more-visible-public-debate - 2025-04-01

Published 13 October 2015 “Leadership is our greatest challenge for the future. We will not be getting more money, so we must learn to use what we have in the best possible way. That means we must look at the whole picture, which requires a new type of leadership.” Torbjörn von Schantz. That’s the view of Torbjörn von Schantz, who is now approaching the end of his first year as Vice-Chancellor of

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/torbjorn-von-schantz-leadership-our-greatest-challenge-future - 2025-04-01

Published 16 November 2015 Florencia Ravenna, from the Instituto Tecnológico de Buenos Aires in Argentina, was an exchange student at LTH in the autumn semester of 2014 and spring semester of 2015. Exchange student Florencia Ravenna. Why did you choose to be an exchange student on the other side of the Atlantic? – I wanted to experience living in a different culture and society, and Scandinavian c

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/lund-i-felt-real-student - 2025-04-01

Published 16 November 2015 “We are dependent on one another globally – this became evident not least through the Ebola epidemic. For cooperation to work and develop, Africa cannot be left out of the loop”, says Benedict Oppong Asamoah, researcher and lecturer in public health. He hopes that the University’s focus on Africa will lead to more and better contacts Benedict Oppong Asamoah. Photo: Gunna

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/africa-strategy-shows-great-potential - 2025-04-01

Published 16 November 2015 Matching the blood of donors and recipients can be crucial to health, and sometimes even a matter of life and death. Blood researcher Martin L. Olsson wants in various ways to make this pairing as good as possible. Saranda Muhaxheri and Asma Al-Grety. Photo: Gunnar Menander Martin L. Olsson. Photo: Gunnar Menander Most people have heard of blood types A, AB, B and 0 (zer

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/blood-matching-matter-life-and-death - 2025-04-01

Published 16 November 2015 For many years, professor of Chinese Michael Schoenhals compiled a substantial archive containing material from the Cultural Revolution in China. He is now donating this unique collection to the Lund University Library. Michael Schoenhals. The Cultural Revolution took place from 1966 to 1976 – a period about which not much has been said for a long time in China. Michael

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/memories-cultural-revolution - 2025-04-01