After more than six years Professor Love Ekenberg leaves the role as head of the DSV to have more time for his research interests. At year 2015, he starts as a senior researcher at the international renowned research institute IIASA. Professor Uno Fors will be new Head of DSV, but Love remains as assistant head of department with specific tasks on part time.

Love Ekenberg can look back on more than six successful years as Head of Stockholm University's largest department. DSV is the country's leading trainers in the IT field and offers a wide range of training courses for a large number of students. Love's time as head of department has also meant a strong expansion on the research side and DSV is now a leader in many research fields.

“We have invested in both a deepening in existing areas and a broadening of research into new areas. We have received a large increase in external funding, increased the number of researchers and significantly increased our scientific publishing,” Love tells.

And the success can also be measured in quantitative terms. Stockholm University's annual bibliometric analysis of research publication in 2013 showed that the DSV is among the most powerful research institutions with its 277 scientific publications. DSV had a public score of 132 - an increase of over 100 points since 2007!

“I am proud that our evolution in terms of publications is so strong. It shows that our conscious effort to strengthen research bears good fruit,” Love emphasizes.

Love wants to highlight the new areas of research that has been added, and also DSV's standpoint of research as a part of societal changes.

- You could say that we are doing research on IT in society. Information technology has a leveling role in knowledge, resources, justice - IT has tremendous potential as a world-improving instrument, underlines Love.

For these reasons, new research areas such as e-government and IT in development have been highlighted at DSV. But Love also wanted to show that IT can be something fun and awesome. From this comes a focus on for example arts, games and multimedia. This has led to exciting interdisciplinary projects with different actors.

“Our collaboration with the Royal College of Music and Royal Institute of Art has given birth to many fun ideas. It is exciting to work in an interdisciplinary way, and with our different methodological traditions, Love explains.

New challenges
At the beginning of 2015 is the time for the next phase; then Love Ekenberg assumes his new position as Senior Research Scholar  at the recognized international research institute IIASA (International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis). IIASA handles interdisciplinary research questions within three global issues: energy & environment, food & water and poverty and equity.

“I will be some kind of advisor and build up an organization around the concept of "equity" - that is, about justice or equality. It will be my task to ensure that this area "gets off the ground," Love says.

IIASA is an exciting research institute operating in areas that lie close to Love’s heart – that is obvious. "This fits well with what one should do" as he puts it.
Assistant Head of Department

Love Ekenberg does not leave DSV altogether. He will remain at 20% as assistant department head responsible for the operations within the e-government field and for the more artistic parts of DSV's operations.

Links

Personal webpage
To make wise decisions – research portrait of Love Ekenberg
IIASA - International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis