We are delighted to welcome our new Deputy Steve Coulson to bioCEED! Even though many employees at UNIS know Steve from before as he used to work at the Arctic Biology (AB) Department at UNIS for 10 years (2005-2015) with research focus on the invertebrate communities of the Arctic, he is new within the bioCEED system and for people at Bergen. Steve was a project manager for Artportalen (Swedish Species Observation System) at the Species Information Centre (ArtDatabanken), University of Agriculture (SLU). Here he worked for five years before moving back to Svalbard in 2021, when he was employed as a departmental leader at AB. Steve has been working with teaching and educational matters for a long time:
My teaching experience comes from several departments at UNIS and different universities in both Norway and the UK. I am a strong believer in hands-on and learning-by-doing education approaches and that to stimulate an interest and enthusiasm to the subject is key to the learning process. bioCEED was just starting up when I left UNIS to work at the Swedish Species Information Centre but on returning here I am amazed at how complex bioCEED has become, the high quality of the teaching tools produced and the enthusiasm of the bioCEED group. I am still very much in my own ‘learning’ phase regarding bioCEED but look very much forward to working with you all and the bioCEED project!.
Steve will take over the position as deputy in bioCEED in August.
Pernille Bronken Eidesen will leave bioCEED in August and will start her work as a leader for the Laboratory School in Biology at the University in Oslo. Pernille has played a major role in building up and developing bioCEED from the early start when bioCEED was established in 2014 and has been running several educational projects within her timeframe at bioCEED. In 2019 she was also rewarded Excellent Teaching Practitioner status which is granted based upon proven merit and commitment to teaching and educational excellence. She has been a highly appreciated colleague at bioCEED who we will miss!
A huge thanks to Pernille for her contributions and leadership as a Deputy over the past years and a warm welcome to Steve on his role as a new Deputy at bioCEED!