Three Isenberg Faculty at Gothenburg University in Sweden

In the Loop, which is a University of Massachusetts online publication that goes out regularly to faculty and staff, has nice coverage of the visit of three Isenberg School of Management faculty members to the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, last month.

Above is a photo of the three of us: Professor Linda Smircich, yours truly, and Professor Marta Calas.

We all have offices on the third floor of the Isenberg School but Linda and Marta had no idea that I would be at the School of Business, Economics, and Law at the University of Gothenburg during the same period of time as they. I had no inkling that they would be there either.

The article talks about how Linda and Marta have had a long association with this university, whereas this was my first trip there as a Visiting Professor of Operations Management.

I happened to come across Linda and Marta at the business school in Sweden, where the photo above was taken. Note -- we were all wearing green (great minds do think alike).

I miss Sweden already and am looking forward to being back in June.

So How Would You Introduce Yourself?

Only about 26 hours after arriving in Sweden, I gave a presentation to a graduate class on Financial Networks at the University of Gothenburg. My host for this class was the instructor, Dr. Taylan Mavruk of the School of Business, Economics and Law. I enjoyed speaking to his students and the lecture actually went over the allotted time but noone seemed to mind.

I was then introduced to the University of Gothenburg community where I have been appointed a Visiting Professor of Operations Management for 2012-2013.

I was asked to prepare a presentation introducing myself.

I decided to focus on International Collaborations, since such collaborations have enriched my research and cultural experiences. In my presentation, I spoke about my first visit to Sweden, which was to Umea in the north, and my receipt of the Kempe Prize from the University of Umea (I fainted when it was announced that I was sharing it with Jacques Thisse). I talked about an International Programs NSF grant that I received to work with colleagues at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH) in Stockholm, and discussed my various Fulbrights (in Austria and in Italy) as well as my experiences organizing a research team residency and a workshop at the Rockefeller Foundation's Bellagio Center on Lake Como in Italy.

My "Introduction" with discussions lasted about 90 minutes, so, that afternoon, I certainly did a lot of speaking. It was very enjoyable to be meeting my new colleagues, the postdocs (fairly common in this business school in Sweden but relatively rare in the US), and students.

From that day on, I would get greetings not only in the School of Business, Economics and Law but even outside, which made me feel very at home in Sweden.