Research Coordinator Greger Lindén is leaving the department crew as he transfers to his new post as Senior Advisor at Aalto University on 1 June. Greger leaving is a huge loss to the department as he leaves behind a long career in studying, teaching, research and administration at the department.

 

Greger entered the physics programme at the University of Helsinki in 1983, with minor subjects mathematics and astronomy. Being a smart guy, Greger soon discovered that physics and astronomy were too lab-oriented fields and decided to move on to Real Science. So it happened that he applied to the computer science programme the very next year, and was accepted. Physics was relegated to a minor subject.

 

Once he had found his own niche, Greger studied hard and graduated as Candidate of Philosophy (MSc) in 1990, Licentiate in 1993, and Doctor 1997. His dissertation Structured Document Transformations studied document modification based on grammars, elegantly combining two of the department’s main fields of study, information management and translation technology. Greger’s thesis supervisor was Heikki Mannila, i.e. the same man that, in his capacity of Vice Rector of Aalto University, has now snatched away his former postgraduate from us.

 

Greger was recruited to become a member of the department staff by Patrik Floréen in 1986. They had met in a group for Swedish-speaking students. Greger’s language skills brought him his first duties as a part-time teacher for the course Grunderna i ADB lectured in Swedish by Solveig Kurtén. Greger is one example of how this week’s hot political potato, ‘positive discrimination,’ can give good results.

 

 

From there, Greger’s career progressed in a familiar pattern: lecturer, postgraduate, research assistant, researcher, and finally the ultimate dead end of an academic career; administrator. The first great challenges in administration that Greger faced were the evaluations of both the research and the teaching at the department in 1999. Since Greger managed to hold both the reins and the material firmly in hand during this ordeal, it was obvious that he would be ‘offered’ such tasks in the future, too. True enough, Greger has had a hand in most evaluations of the department since then. He has also been the coordinator of the Finnish Academy-financed PROACT programme and the HeCSE postgraduate school. In addition to the tedious paperwork, Greger has had some opportunities to work with teaching and research.

 

Being a nice but precise person, Greger has always been much appreciated and trusted at the department, which was proven in 2008 when he was elected the first ‘positive persona’ of the department. It is easy to wish positive Greger the best of success with his new career.

 

To Greger, the best thing about working at the department has been that his duties have refreshingly changed periodically. His famous last words were: