BIO Awards 2013

BIO’s Colleague of the Year 2013

There were many deserving nominations for this prize. This year’s winner was nominated for her consistent efforts to create straight-forward, safe and practical routines for users of BIO’s lab facilities. The award also recognises her contributions to BIO’s Health and Safety (HMS) and Safety Deputy (verneombud) activity.

In addition, the award recognises her personal engagement towards building a good social environment within both the Department and her own research group, where, for example, she inspires and motivates her colleagues to build and maintain social traditions such as Christmas and Easter lunches, summer outings, Advent calendars etc. BIO thereby recognises her all-around contributions with BIO’s Colleague of the Year Award, 2013.

Congratulations Rita Karlsen!

BIO Teacher of the Year 2013 (bachelor level)

The BIO Teacher of the Year at the bachelor level is a person well known for his teaching and communicating skills, which have been recognised previously with both the Meltzer Award (2012) and Kristine Bonnevie Prize (2013), Harald Kryvi.

Kryvi’s nomination was submitted by the Fish Health and Aquaculture student organization. It stated:

In Harald Kryvi BIO has an outstanding academic and pedagogic resource – a first-rate example for all other teachers.

The award nomination was based on the following factors: 

• Kryvi is exceptionally gifted pedagogically. This enables him to convey difficult ideas in a very accessible way.
• He manages to actively engage students during his lectures. Instead of there being only one-way communication, Kryvi generates discussion situations.
• Kryvi is always on time and well prepared for his lectures. Not only does this engender a good learning environment, but it conveys the impression that he enjoys and is engaged in his teaching.
• Kryvi has undertaken efforts to help and support students; he organises question periods, changes study plans to help students with difficult subject areas, follows-up students’ progress, and generates a secure and supportive learning framework around his courses.
• It is reassuring for students to see that Kryvi’s enormous academic competence enables him be able to formulate answers to complicated questions in ways that support them as they struggle to gain understanding of the subject material. 

We extend our congratulations to Harald. Although he is turning 70 in 2014, we hope to continue to have him with us in the years to come.

BIO Teacher of the Year 2013 (master level)

The second BIO Teacher of Year prize goes to a next-generation teacher. Her nomination from STIM (Student Organisation for Master Students) includes the following:

• The person nominated here was noted for her dedication to her role as a teaching assistant. She provided a welcome breath of fresh air during the course.
• She was an effective bridge between the lecturers and students, and was a prime example of how a teaching assistant can be effective in maintaining communication in a course that by definition could be very disorganized (e.g. many guest lecturers).
• She ensured that the course information on “MiSide” was up-to-date at all times; files were uploaded, questions answered and reminders sent.
• Course participants felt that she went out of her way to help them improve their performance by helping them to overcome difficult tasks, by taking extra time to go through lab reports or by giving presentation feedback outside of the class.
• She was always able to give both a smile and well-thought answers to any “obvious” questions from students.
• This person is an outstanding example of how a teaching assistant should be. Her efforts enhanced the students’ learning experience and underline the critical importance of the teaching assistant role.

The prize goes to Marta Eide for her work on the BIO 216 Toxicology course last spring.

Publication of the Year 2013

This prize goes to a publication from a PhD thesis defended in June 2013. In the article “Physical dormancy in seeds: a game of hide and seek?”  New Phytologist, 198: 496–503, Torbjørn Rage Paulsen, with co-authors, including Göran Högstedt and Vigdis Vandvik at BIO, proposes an additional or alternative explanation for the function of hard seed coats. The authors suggest that the hard seed coat may help seeds escape from predators (rather than facilitation of dormancy), and may have been the selective force behind its evolution. The article received considerable media attention and was selected as editor’s choice in Science at its time of publication. (Read more about this article)

Congratulations to Torbjørn, Göran and Vigdis!

BIO Special Prize of the Year 2013

This prize is awarded to a group of three, who formed a committee that has been working hard for two years to make the buildings we work in look nicer and more attractive than they did when we moved in. It is work that has benefitted us all, creating a working environment that we all can be proud of, and which inspires us with visual highlights from the world of Biology. The committee is the Decoration Committee. It is led by Harald Kryvi and includes Solveig Thorkildsen and Beate Helle.

Thanks so much!