“I’m personally very sad that David has decided to return to research so soon. He’s been an excellent leader of the research area at the faculty, and I’ll miss having him as a part of the Dean's Office. Having said that, I can well understand why he is seizing an opportunity when it presents itself,” says Dean Kristian Pedersen.

The opportunity is a research project on carbon storage. The details of the project are not yet quite ready for publication, but there is a lot of work to be done to co-ordinate collaboration between the various stakeholders, including Climate Foundation Skive, the Danish Ministry of Climate, Energy and Utilities and researchers from the Department of Geoscience

“I’ve always intended to return to research at the end of my time as the vice-dean, but this opportunity has presented itself a little earlier than planned. This has not been an easy decision, because my work as the vice-dean is extremely exciting, and I’ll miss my fantastic colleagues in the Dean's Office and the Secretariat. But I'm looking forward to getting back to research and to co-ordinating a ground-breaking research project in an important area," says David Lundbek Egholm.

Geoscience looking forward to resuming collaboration

From 1 August, David Lundbek Egholm will return to a position as a professor at the Department of Geoscience. The head of the department, Jan Piotrowski, is looking forward to having David on the team again.

"I welcome David back to the department. He’s been one of our very best researchers, and I look forward to his strong scientific and didactic input. His intention to focus on carbon storage in the subsurface fits in extremely well with the department's priorities. I also hope that his experience from the faculty management team and his newly acquired contacts as the vice-dean with relevant players in both the private and public sectors will benefit the development of the department's future strategy considerably," says Head of Department Jan Piotrowski.

Even though from 1 August David will officially be a professor at Department of Geoscience, he has agreed to continue some specific tasks after that date. He will continue as the head of the graduate school until a new vice-dean has been found and is ready to take over. Similarly, he will not immediately stop working with foundations to obtain better coverage of the overheads of research projects (the full cost model).