On Electing Presidents and Developing Bio Regions

Karin Markides with Chemistry professor Dick Zare, Stanford University. Lisa Eurenius, PhD Student from Chalmers in the background.


The Chalmers University of Technology Board decided at an extraordinary board meeting on May 23 to appoint Karin Markides as President of Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg.

The news just became public. I’m at Stanford, organizing a workshop on the strongholds for research and innovation in the Gothenburg region. We will identify the uniqueness, analyze the opportunities, and identify the challenges of the biotech innovation system around Gothenburg University and Chalmers University. There are people here from the both Gothenburg region and the Stanford/Bay Area.

Hip, Hip, Hooray! And all that. It looked like a coincidence, but Karin assured it was not. We had champagne, of course.

The result of the workshop will be a shared understanding and opinions about the potential competitive edge and attractiveness, as well as the shortcomings and challenges, for development of the Gothenburg Bio innovation system.