Candidates for board elections

Below follows all the candidates for the DION board and DION president elections. It is still possible to announce your candidacy, see more information here.

DION president candidates

Idd Andrea Christensen, NV-IBT

My name Is Idd and running for the president position on the DION board. I am a first-year Ph.D. at the faculty of Biotechnology and Food science. “Born and bred” in Trondheim, I completed my masters degree in Biotechnology spring 2019. I am currently working within the field of structural biology – investigating enzyme structure and function, using Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) Spectroscopy. As a “Trønder”, I enjoy working in an environment where people from all over the world come together in this strange town in Norway to make friends and to do good research!

Being a diverse group of people, I appreciate the role DION have in representing the interests of the temporary staff at NTNU. This is especially important in the turbulent environment we are currently in, where restrictions and delays due to COVID-19 have a great effect on our daily work, and state of mind. Seeing how DION have acted their part in the past few weeks have opened my eyes to the importance of a strong and visible union. It would be a great honor to participate in the work DION is doing, and I wish to be an asset in securing the rights and interests of the temporary staff at NTNU.

Further, I wish to preserve DION’s role as a social nucleus, especially when it comes to our international colleges. It is not always easy to make new friends when moving to a new country. It is therefore important to have a platform that makes it easy to come in contact with our collages, either through a seminar or a social meet up with drinks.

NTNU is ever-growing. With the inclusion of campus Ålesund and Gjøvik, it is vital that staff in all parts of NTNU are represented equally. I wish to continue DIONS work in this regard, catering not only to staff employed at NTNU Trondheim but also representing and including members at NTNU Ålesund and Gjøvik. If elected president, I wish to be an easily approachable friendly face for all my colleges

I hope you will consider me!

DION board candidates

Aida Akbarzadeh, PhD candidate, IE-IIK

My name is Aida, and I am almost at the end of the first year of my PhD at the Critical Infrastructure Security and Resilience (CISaR) group in Gjøvik. It might not be a big surprise to my colleagues and friends to find my name here among nominees as they know me as a social and energetic person who enjoys social activity, playing games, and being part of a team! But what encouraged me to run for the DION board stems from the potential of DION to make changes and facilitate our working experience at NTNU, in particular during this difficult time. This year, I spent a couple of months in Trondheim, and I found out many of my friends from different departments struggle to learn the Norwegian language. While they had some suggestions to make this procedure easier, it just seemed like a hope! Then, I met one of the DION board members, and we had a great talk about the DION, and I found out she was eagerly thinking of my friends’ concern, the language course for foreign employees. You know, we don’t even have access to that Norwegian course here in Gjøvik, and I believe that there are many examples like that one. So, I want to take action and contribute more actively to the DION to create a more pleasant working environment, which could potentially increase the productivity, job satisfaction, and mental health of us all.

 

Masab Khalid Annaqeeb, PhD candidate, IV-EPT

Bio

I am currently a PhD candidate at the department of Energy and Process Engineering since 2018. My background consists of a bachelor’s in civil engineering (Osmania University, India) and a masters in Sustainable Critical Infrastructure (Masdar Institute, United Arab Emirates). At NTNU, my research is involved with the Indoor Environment group, wherein I am working to improve simulations of energy-related occupant behavior in buildings, in order to optimize building design.

I joined the DION board in April 2019, and it has been an absolute pleasure to be part of such a motivated group of people, and I am extremely proud of all the accomplishments the board made last year.

Motivation

As a board member for the past year, I was lucky enough to see the inner workings of NTNU and get a practical insight into how the system works, from the perspective of PhDs, Postdocs, and other temporary scientific employees. In part, my motivation stems from the desire to use this experience efficiently for tackling issues encountered by our community. More specifically, our current situation with the coronavirus would indicate a series of issues stemming from the consequences of the lock-down, from required extensions, to conducting social events, and I would like to continue the work of the previous board in this direction, if elected.

As members of the research community, it is easy to get immersed into our work to the point that we start becoming a bit isolated in our own spheres, and DION provides wonderful mediums to keep that isolation at bay, and I quite enjoyed hosting and attending these events. That is something I would be keen on continuing as well, if given the opportunity.

I would also like to preserve and continue the collaborations that DION made with other organizations, and work towards making it more accessible and representative of the diverse community we have at NTNU.

Considering my background and motivations, I hope to be a valuable asset to the organization.

Elodie Besnier, PhD candidate, SU-ISS

I joined NTNU at the beginning of my PhD in 2018. My research at the Centre for Global Health Inequalities Research (CHAIN) focuses primarily on public health interventions and health inequalities in children in low- and middle-income countries. As a newcomer to both Norway and NTNU two years ago, I could see the value of DION as a great resource to temporary scientific staff and as a way to socialize and meet new people. Then, as a board member in 2019-2020, I was excited to be able to support this work.

I am very proud of the achievements of our 2019-2020 team. Among other projects, the mobilization we supported during the salary negotiations, the revamping of the DION website and supporting our members at the beginning of the coronavirus confinement are initiatives I was particularly excited to be involved in. At the same time, some of the issues we wanted to address – such as mental health awareness, the collaboration with NIRS or the contract extensions due to coronavirus – couldn’t be fully tackled by the end of our term. Hence, I would like to continue this work, bringing these initiatives further, by applying to join next year’s 2020-2021 board.

Should I be given this opportunity again, the first priority I would like to address will be continuing to advocate for better support to our members under confinement. This will also include advocating for fair, comprehensive criteria for the extension of contracts of temporary scientific staff, whose work and wellbeing have been affected by the recent situation.

Secondly, and further to the struggles many of us have faced recently, I would like to further develop DION’s activities related to the mental health and wellbeing of PhD candidates, post-docs, and temporary scientific employees. Such activities may include the implementation of the Mental Health Awareness week (initially planned in April 2019) but also continue to diversify the type of social events DION offers.

Finally, in line with DION’s representativity mandate, I would like to build up the advocacy and visibility work DION has led to ensure NTNU’s policies and decisions take into account the diversity of statuses and situations scientific temporary employees face. These issues include the situation of externally funded PhDs, better supporting post-docs and better access to information in English and to language classes for internationals.

I am convinced that addressing these issues would contribute to improve the opportunities and working environment offered to PhD candidates, post-docs, and temporary scientific employees at NTNU. Therefore, I would be honored to be given the opportunity to continue supporting DION’s work as a member of the 2020-2021 board.

Idd Andrea Christensen, NV-IBT

(Candidate is also running for president, see application text above.)

Irina Mihaela Ciortan, PhD candidate, IE-IDI

My name Irina Mihaela Ciortan, a Romanian with arms long spread around the map of Europe. In the shape of a hug, of course, since I love EU and being a citizen of it. My studies and career in research have brought me to live in 4 other countries besides my native land: Spain, France, Italy and Norway, where I am today. I am passionate about research and my work – I graduated the Erasmus Mundus Master of Color in Informatics and Media Technology and at the moment I am in the second year of my PhD project at the Colorlab in IDI Gjøvik, working on the topic “Spectral Imaging and Visual Computing Tehcnologies for Cultural Heritage”. One of the collateral benefits of my career in Academia is that it makes me understand new cultures and socialize with people from all continents. Therefore, I like to play the “ambassador” whenever I get the chance by bonding with international people and learning about their micro-universes while sharing mine. I generally like art and cultural events and I am trying to dig as much as possible for such happenings in Gjøvik and believe it or not, there are such hidden gems waiting to be discovered. Having grown up in a capital, I sometimes miss the dynamics of a big city, even though I absolutely enjoy the peaceful life of Gjøvik. Therefore, I want to be part of the DION board to express and implement my initiative of both creating and supporting events that facilitate the cultural exploration of the city and spice up the social life of the NTNU campus in Gjøvik. Pick me and let’s make the most of our academic experience in Gjøvik, together!

Anne Kristin Kvitle, PhD candidate, IE-IDI

My name is Anne, and I am PhD candidate in Computer Science at the Colorlab in Gjøvik. My PhD project is about inclusive design of colour coded information, and how to make this more accessible for all and especially for those with colour vision deficiencies. I have been a board member and leader of the local Tekna group in Gjøvik for several years, focusing on organizing events spanning from working and social rights to cultural, social and family events. I have a passion for the STEM disciplines and have been organizing the FIRST LEGO League tournament in Gjøvik for many years. I like the concept of games for learning and was a member of the NTNU Norwegian Cyber Rangers Team competing in the Cyber 9/12 Student Challenge in 2019.

My motivation for wanting to be a board member is the opportunity to contribute to make a difference for our members, regarding both working environment and social life activities. One of the things I find important, especially for temporary scientific employees, is inclusion and to help newcomers settle in. The NTNU Onboarding concept is good, but we can still do more. This involves navigating through language, structural and cultural obstacles, but also to minimize the geographical gap between our campuses through cross campus activities.

Health and wellbeing are key factors for a successful career and a happy life, and the importance of mental health should still be emphasized. We should continue the good work with workshops and seminars focusing on mental health. Also, I would also like to focus on social and cultural event, which could also include the families of our members.

I am from Gjøvik, so I hope that I can have the opportunity to help our DION member to get to know and love Gjøvik and Norway. As a local I know of the many secrets and adventures waiting to be explored. Also, I hope that we can establish a DION choir in Gjøvik and Ålesund, so we can sing online together with the choir in Trondheim!

 

Farid Khazaeli Moghadam, PhD candidate, IV-IMT

EDUCATIONS

• Norwegian: Intermediate
• English: Proficient

Lisa Tietze, PhD candidate, SV-IBT

I am currently a PhD candidate in the NV faculty, Department of Biotechnology and Food Science. I fell in love with Norway when I did my ERASMUS student exchange in Trondheim in 2014/15. Originally, I come from Germany and I am extremely grateful to be able to do my PhD education here in Trondheim. One of the reasons that makes life enjoyable for me and other temporary staff here, are the generally good working environment and offers from different organizations at NTNU. Norway is known for its friendly work-life balance, embedded social structures and quality of education. For me it is vital to maintain and improve these aspects. One of the organizations working on this is DION. I would like to continue working for DION as a board member to be able to contribute to the always evolving and changing discussions around everything concerning the working environment here at NTNU. I hope I can continue to work on strengthening the stance DION has in the structure of NTNU and therefore gain even more impact on the work that is being done. One topic I specifically want to focus on if I get elected is the language course support through NTNU for foreign employees. I also enjoy helping others, so I would like to stay part of the team that is able to offer help in those situations and hopefully contribute to solving the problem.