Published 13 June 2016 Growing up in Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, he knew that one wrong word could get you killed; as a forced recruit, he came close to death many times. But after three Master’s degrees, Dara Maghdid has earned a PhD with his investigation of cultural differences in the teaching of mathematics. Now he wants to thank Lund University. In the future, motivation among students of mathemat

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/phd-mathematics-against-all-odds - 2025-04-29

Published 13 June 2016 The more reputable the scientific journal, the more expensive it will be to publish an article with Open Access. Research publishers are riding the gravy train, but for the individual researcher the cost often comes as an unpleasant surprise, after they have spent all of their funding. Librarian Aron Lindhagen helps researchers with any questions they have concerning publish

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/expensive-publish-open-access-prestigious-journals - 2025-04-29

Published 13 June 2016 Corn starch, with elements of heavy metals, powdered brick, amphetamines, ink, wall paint or furniture polish. This is what can be found in falsified medicines, a market currently considered more profitable than that of drug crime. Professor of Ethnology Susanne Lundin. Photo: Kennet Ruona Some defective medicines were authentic to begin with, but have been wrongly stored or

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/industry-worth-billions-puts-lives-risk - 2025-04-29

Published 13 June 2016 During the week of Midsummer, Sweden will inaugurate its largest investment in research ever made – MAX IV Laboratory. “It has been a long process and it feels amazing that all the electrons and light are now working”, says Pro Vice-Chancellor Stacey Ristinmaa Sörensen, responsible for the University’s infrastructure and Professor of Synchrotron Radiation Physics. “We are pr

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/time-inaugurate-swedens-largest-research-investment-max-iv - 2025-04-29

Published 16 September 2016 The Bible clearly still plays a role in current politics and culture. But do research findings on Bible texts reach wider society and, if so, do they influence groups of religious practitioners? Jennifer Nyström, a doctoral student in Bible studies specialising in the apostle Paul, has pondered these questions. Jennifer Nyström has conducted around 50 interviews in Isra

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/do-research-findings-reach-jerusalem - 2025-04-29

Published 16 September 2016 Why do humans and other mammals have two kidneys, but only one heart and one brain? “Because the kidneys are so important, of course!” says Diana Karpman – partly joking and partly serious. As a consultant and professor in nephrology, she really does think these organs are among the most essential in the body. Diana Karpmans work has been very rewarding. In a healthy in

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/searching-causes-kidney-failure - 2025-04-29

Published 16 September 2016 “Sweden is currently making a lot of progress in issues concerning sustainability. The country is at the forefront and it is exciting to be a part of it”, says the new director of LUCSUS, Emily Boyd. Emily Boyd believes that working at LUCSUS and Lund University will provide good opportunities to help solve these challenges. She enters through the magnificent doors of t

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/sweden-forefront-sustainability - 2025-04-29

Published 16 September 2016 Fifteen engineers from Syria have enrolled as students at the Lund Faculty of Engineering (LTH). For one year, they will top up their degrees with Swedish university credits and take an intensive language course in Swedish. The idea is to create a shortcut to employment for people who are relatively new in Sweden. “Lund with its old buildings reminds me of Damascus befo

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/finally-mohammad-can-begin-studying-lth - 2025-04-29

Published 17 October 2016 “When his head moves it makes me happy and I feel appreciated. I believe I like to think of him as a living thing. He is charming.” A test subject explains her feelings about the robot called Hobbit – a social robot that works as a communication tool, support and company for elderly persons. It can fetch pills, find keys, pick up things from the floor, notify someone in c

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/hobbit-robot-nice-companion - 2025-04-29

Published 17 October 2016 Many Swedes have large debts, and being in debt is often expected to lead to poor health. However, economist Therese Nilsson at the School of Economics and Management finds that we still do not know enough to determine whether it is the debt itself that leads to ill health – or if ill health leads to debt. Economist Therese Nilsson. Photo: Apelöga Anyone who has ever live

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/does-debt-create-ill-health-or-does-ill-health-create-debt - 2025-04-29

Published 17 October 2016 Peace-building, mediation and justice issues have always been on the agenda. But the researcher path was not the obvious choice for Karin Aggestam, who has now been appointed to the prestigious Pufendorf chair. She is both the first woman and the first political scientist to obtain it – and she hopes to pave the way for an international Master’s programme in diplomacy. Ka

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/peace-and-justice-always-agenda-new-pufendorf-professor - 2025-04-29

Published 17 October 2016 “With small means and good will you can accomplish a lot in a short period of time”, says Henrik Lundgren, CEO of EFL, the School of Economics and Management’s foundation for executive education. In six weeks, the foundation started an integration project for newly arrived academics in Sweden, several of whom have already acquired permanent employment. Henrik Lundgren (to

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/integration-course-last-spring-resulted-several-permanent-employments - 2025-04-29

Published 17 October 2016 As a young journalist, Tomas Sniegon had fantastic material – more than one hundred hours of interviews with the former KGB chairman Vladimir Semichastny. It was intended for a memoir, but time moved on and the market was suddenly saturated with Soviet confessions. Twenty years later, the winds have changed. There is renewed interest in looking back to understand both Rus

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/investigating-doctored-memories-old-soviet-communist - 2025-04-29

Published 18 November 2016 After your PhD, the clock starts ticking fast. For a young researcher there are no guarantees that you will have a long career in research. Still, you have to give it your all, often while combining it with having small children. There is no time for you to draw up a plan B. In this equation, Pontus Nordenfelt from Future Faculty calls for more honesty and clearer career

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/more-people-should-be-sharing-grants - 2025-04-29

Published 18 November 2016 Using new technology it is possible to get a detailed colour image of all retinal layers without inserting any instrument into the eye. The technology will be used by eye researcher Elisabeth Wittström, who studies diseases of the macula. Her colleague, Linnéa Taylor, is researching the link between inflammation and damage to the retina, which could lead to new treatment

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/new-technology-facilitates-studies-macula - 2025-04-29

Published 18 November 2016 As a young man, when Mats Bohgard was working at a chemical factory during a leave from studies, he was urged to “Come back and fix the work environment to make it fit for human beings!”. Mats Bohgard. “Even though they said it half-jokingly, the truth is that they were experiencing every conceivable work environment problem: chemical exposure, noticeable alcohol abuse,

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/work-environment-champion - 2025-04-29

Published 18 November 2016 “How are you, what seems to be the problem?” asks Ahmed, who is playing Doctor Ali. “Well, I have had a stomach ache for a few days”, says 26 year-old Sadeq who is playing the patient, 50 year-old Bengt. “Can you describe your symptoms?” asks Ahmed/Doctor Ali, and Sadeq/Bengt explains about pain, nausea and vomiting. At Locus Medicus in Malmö. Sadeq al-Ghaffari from Irak

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/recent-arrivals-practise-their-swedish-medics-language-cafe - 2025-04-29

Published 18 November 2016 Russia has its own right-wing populist movement: the Parental Movement. While the US equivalent is protesting stricter gun control, the Russians are raging against the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. “Western lifestyle is considered a major threat to Russian traditions and normal family life”, says social anthropologist Tova Höjdestrand. She sees patterns that

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/russian-parental-movement-counteracting-childrens-rights - 2025-04-29

Published 23 November 2016 A new interdisciplinary research environment for human rights will soon be launched in Lund. “Interdisciplinarity and innovative thinking are required if our work on human rights is to remain relevant to society”, writes Morten Kjaerum, director of the Raoul Wallenberg Institute. Morten Kjaerum, director and adjunct professor Raoul Wallenberg Institute. The head of the h

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/chronicle-human-rights-are-become-interdisciplinary - 2025-04-29

Published 16 December 2016 For two years, the LU350 Office has been working hard to coordinate all the University initiatives into a jubilee programme. The jubilee starts on Monday 19 December – exactly 350 years after the document to establish Lund University was signed. “After all the planning, we have finally reached the implementation phase”, says Louise Pierce, one of the three members of the

https://www.staff.lu.se/article/now-it-starts-lund-universitys-350th-anniversary - 2025-04-29