Uppsala professor to take over as head of MAX IV in Lund
Professor Olof Karis is succeeding Ian McNutley, who has vacated the post of director at MAX IV after three and a half years. Karis has been engaged in research at the facility since its inception, and also used to chair one of MAX IV's advisory committees.
Olof Karis is leaving the Department of Physics and Astronomy to become the new director at MAX IV. Photograph: Mikael Wallerstedt
“Being invited to head this facility, which is so important for Sweden and Swedish research, is a huge honour, of course. It’s an immensely exciting job. I intend to meet the board very soon to settle priorities for the task and sort out the final details,” he says.
The MAX IV laboratory is the synchrotron radiation facility with the world’s brightest light. It has evolved from the establishment phase to an operational one in which hundreds of research projects are conducted annually. Since its opening in 2016, it has expanded strongly; 10 new experimental stations, for example, have come on stream.
The facility is now entering a new phase in which a strategic plan for the next 10 to 20 years is taking shape. The plan is to enable more sectors than at present to use MAX IV, to and increase industry’s use of the facility. Another wish is for industry to join in developing the lab to a greater extent.
Important facility
Materials research, which is strong at Uppsala University, is an area for which the facility is very important. Olof Karis belongs to a large group of researchers at the University who worked at the old MAX Lab and have been at MAX IV right from the start. He is also head of the Department of Physics and Astronomy, with its 400 employees, as well as being ultimately responsible for activities at the Freia Lab and involved in the Advisory Board for Research Infrastructure at the University.
University Vice-Chancellor Anders Hagfeldt fully understands the Board’s choice.
“Olof Karis will leave a gap here in Uppsala, of course. But at the same time it’s excellent that MAX IV is getting a wise, experienced director. He has long experience of instrumentation and a passionate interest in it, as well as a solid track record of leading a big, complex scientific department.”
Anneli Waara