News from the Vice-Chancellor’s Office
No. 38, 5 November

Global Dialogue Prize

On Thursday 5 November, an international academic committee consisting of twelve esteemed researchers announced the winners of the newly established Global Dialogue Prize in Aarhus.

The winners of this major humanistic award for global dialogue are the two Iranians Dariush Shayegan and Mohammad Khatami, who share the prize of DKK 500,000 sponsored by the Grundfos Foundation.The prize-giving ceremony is scheduled to take place in Aarhus on 27 January 2010.

The Global Dialogue Prize is awarded to candidates who have researched and developed ideas, concepts and theories in cross-cultural value studies and intercultural dialogue.The grounds for making the award and selecting the mindset the two Iranians have nurtured and tried to disseminate are available at http://www.globaldialogueprize.org .

Opinions of the two candidates are split – not only in Iran and Denmark, but also around the world.In this connection, a number of individuals have questioned how Aarhus University – along with the other founders of this major humanistic dialogue prize – can support awarding the prize to Shayegan and Khatami for their ideas about global dialogue.At Aarhus University itself, the selection has been discussed. Fortunately so because the basic idea of the whole university is for researchers to respond to current issues.

For the same reason, the Vice-Chancellor’s Office must not act as adjudicator with regard to an appointment made by a well-founded international academic committee.We respect and acknowledge the researchers who have undertaken this task.The university’s task is to ensure that the academic basis lives up to the international standards that can be deployed in connection with awarding such a prize.This is the way the university acts with regard to awarding academic prizes – it could otherwise be considered an arbiter of taste.

Aarhus University number 97 in the Shanghai ranking list for 2009

Aarhus University retains its position in the top 100 in the latest Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU) published by Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

ARWU ranks Aarhus University as number 97 (number93 in 2008). The ranking list is compiled on the basis of the Nobel Prizes and Fields Medals awarded to the university researchers and alumni, as well as other indicators that measure the citation frequency of their research.The most important parameter behind the university’s ranking is the generally high level of citation of its research.This applies to the main focus area “Natural Science and Mathematics” and the field “Chemistry” – where Aarhus University is among the top 100 in both areas.

The Shanghai ranking thus supports the conclusions regarding a high level of international impact contained in the survey undertaken for Aarhus University by the Centre for Science and Technology Studies (CWTS) at Leiden University in the Netherlands.As usual, Harvard University tops the Shanghai list, and the University of Copenhagen is number 43.

Ambassadors from the USA and Cuba pay a visit

The Vice-Chancellor’s Office and a number of researchers and students spent this week meeting with the ambassadors of the USA and Cuba.

Mr Guillermo Vázquez Moreno, Cuban Ambassador to Denmark, visited the university on Wednesday.This included an introduction to research at the Faculty of Health Sciences and a visit to the Latin American Centre in the Nobel Park.

On Thursday, the recently appointed US Ambassador to Denmark, Ms Laurie S. Fulton, also visited Aarhus University.Among those she met were researchers from the university’s climate research group, MINDLab, IT City Katrinebjerg and the ASTRID storage ring facilities.

New organisation of the Department of Communication and Public Affairs

Reorganisation of the department has been implemented to prepare the central communication department for future tasks and to strengthen its collaboration with the main academic areas.One of the aims is to focus tasks in two pillars – an event and marketing pillar and a media pillar.In this regard, a position has been advertised for a Head of Media.See the notice (in Danish only) at http://www.au.dk/da/nyheder/stillinger/2009/214/6-302 .

Calendar

• 9 November: Board meeting
• 16 November: University management meeting
• 7 December: University management meeting
• 17 December: Board meeting
• 18 December at 9.00–11.00: Vice-Chancellor’s Christmas speech in the Lakeside Lecture Theatres

Kind regards
The Vice-Chancellor’s Office
5 November 2009

The Vice-Chancellor’s Office publishes a newsletter every week.This newsletter includes a brief description of current activities and discussions.You can sign up for the Danish version of the newsletter at http://info.au.dk/medarbbreve, after which you will receive an e-mail whenever the newsletter is issued.
If you would like to subscribe to the English version of News from the Vice-Chancellor’s Office, please go to http://info.au.dk/medarbbreve/index.asp?sprog=en . The English version of News from the Vice-Chancellor’s Office is available at http://www.au.dk/en/uni/rectorate/newsletter . You can read previous editions of News from the Vice-Chancellor’s Office at http://www.au.dk/en/uni/rectorate/newsletter/2009