Bowling with DION in Gjøvik (26th May)

The summer is finally here and it’s time to leave your office desks and get more active. DION will organize a bowling evening in Gjøvik. You will have an opportunity to enjoy the social atmosphere with your colleagues and test your bowling skills. 🙂

When: May 26th (Sunday)

Time: 4pm – 5pm

Locaton: Bowling 1 Gjøvik

Image may contain: one or more people, drink and indoor
The game fee will be covered by DION for the first 20 registrees. Food and drinks will be available for purchase from Bowling 1 Gjøvik.

The event is free for the first 20 participants only. Hurry up and register for the event here: https://forms.gle/Qb4qTnUai7eLtVKq7

The lanes are booked from 16:00 sharp. Be on time!
Follow the facebook event for further updates.

Congrats to the new elected DION Board 2019/2020

Congrats to Angelina Penner for becoming DION President 2019/2020!

PhD Candidate

Department of Interdisciplinary Studies of Culture
Faculty of Humanities

Congrats to the elected DION Board members:

Elodie Besnier

PhD candidate, SU-ISS

Davit Gigilashvili

PhD Candidate
Department of Computer Science Gjøvik

Lisa Tietze


PhD Candidate
Department of Biotechnology and Food Science

Mattia Veroni


PhD candidate
Department of Information Security and Communication Technology

Erland Årstøl


Phd candidate
Department of Biotechnology and Food Science

Masab Khalid Annaqeeb

PhD Candidate
Department of Energy and Process Engineering

Tor Anders Bye

PhD-candidate
Department of Sociology and Political Science

 

Election Procedures for DION 2019/2020

All PhD students, post-docs, and temporary scientific employees are eligible to run for a DION board position! DION Board elections will take place at our 2019 Annual General Meeting (AGM), 25th April at R2 Realfagbygget (Trondheim). 

The DION Board consists of 5 to 8 members, including DION president, who serve for 12 months (until spring 2020). DION is the only organization at NTNU which represents PhDs and post-docs from across the university. We hold monthly board meetings and discuss wide-ranging questions we receive from PhD students, post-docs, institutes, and the NTNU Board. This is an opportunity influence the work situation of the academic temporary staff, and get insight into how the university works. DION is invited to various university events throughout the year and presents at faculties’ introduction seminars for new PhD students. We therefore strive to have the broadest range of disciplines represented on the board to bring diverse perspectives to our discussions. We also serve as an important social arena, and hold event targeted at different groups throughout year.  

As a compensation for this work, board members receive one month of paid extension of the PhD (or one month paid duty work), and the DION president receives two months.  

What is needed from the candidates: 

  • All candidates must be employed at NTNU as a temporary scientific employee (such as PhD student and Post-doc) and have a contract for at least until spring 2020;  
  • For the president position, Norwegian proficiency is required. 

Election Procedures for DION 2019/2020

The Board election takes place during the Annual General Meeting and opens on April 25th after candidates have presented themselves. Final deadline for voting is same day, April 25th, minimum 60 minutes after opening. Board members are compensated and elected for one year at the time.

Cast your vote in the electronic election system Valg Web: https://innsida.ntnu.no/valg

To be elected: Temporary scientific employees (1 president + up to 7 board members) 

How to become a candidate

Send your short application including name, affiliation short bio and motivation (1 page max) to post@dion.ntnu.no if you’d like to join next year’s DION Board preferably in advance of the AGMand and up to time before the announcement of the candidates during the AGM. Alternatively, contact the board at the beginning of the AGM (before the announcement of the candidates). You’re welcome to contact us to post@dion.ntnu.no if you have any questions about joining the Board. 

At the AGM, candidates will have the opportunity to present themselves. Candidates for board will have 1 minute to present, candidates for president 2 minutes.

If you cannot be physically present at the AGM, you could send a short video (1-2 min max) motivating your election as a board member.

Voting procedures:

You can vote for up to one candidate for president and up to seven for board members.

The voting will be done in accordance in NTNU voting system (Valg Web).

The votes are weighted by dividing the total of Number 1 rankings by 1, the total of Number 2 rankings by 3, the total of Number 3 rankings by 5, the total number of Number 4 rankings by 7, etc.

The total of the weighted numbers of votes determines who is elected as a member.

In case of tie for the position of president or board member, a new round(s) of election is(are) done between those candidates until one gets elected.

According to the DION Statutes (p. 2.4), it is a goal of the organization to achieve a good diversity and gender balance between members of the board if possible.

Candidates (in order of application):

For more information about the candidates please see this page:

Candidates 2019

For President:

contact post@dion.ntnu.no if you would like to be the DION president!

For DION Board:

Rouzbeh Keihani

Elodie Besnier

Davit Gigilashvili

Angelina Penner

Lisa Tietze

DION board Candidates 2019/2020

Candidates appear in the order we received your application

last updated: 24/04/2019

Requirements to become a candidate:

Be employed at NTNU as a temporary scientific employee (such as PhD student and Post-doc) and have a contract for at least 1 year more.

Send your short application including name, affiliation short bio and motivation (1 page max) to post@dion.ntnu.no preferably in advance of the elections and up to time before the announcement of the candidates during the AGM. Alternatively, contact the board during the AGM before the announcement of the candidates.

At the AGM, candidates will have the opportunity to present themselves. Candidates for board will have 1 minute to present, candidates for president 2 minutes.

If you cannot be physically present at the AGM, you could send a short video (1-2 min max) motivating your election as a board member.

For the president position, Norwegian proficiency is required.

For President:

For DION Board:

Rouzbeh Keihani

PhD Candidate
Department of biological science Ålesund

Bio and Motivation:

My name is Rouzbeh Keihani. I am a 36 year old male who is working as a PhD candidate at the department of biological science Ålesund.
I would like to apply for the position of Board Member with NTNU’s interest organization for PhDs, post-docs, and temporary scientific employees.
I am very much aligned with the goals and focus of your organization and I would like to use my skills and time to help organization with improving work and social related conditions of temporary scientific employees at NTNTU.
I have been a manger for 6 years in two companies and I have experience in chairing meetings and strategic solutions. I
Currently DION has no representive in Aalesund and therefore there is no specific connection between temporary employees in Aalesund and DION in Trondheim. I would like to represent the organization in Aalesund and open the way for further collaboration.

Elodie Besnier

PhD candidate, SU-ISS

Bio and Motivation:

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. Before joining NTNU, I worked in the policy and advocacy sector for public health and health non-profit organizations in various European countries.

As I was new to both Norway and NTNU, DION was among the first sources of information in English I was pointed to when I started. It has been a valuable support for questions related to my PhD and for opportunities to socialize. This support is absolutely essential for all PhD candidates, post-docs, and temporary scientific employees and especially for those you are new to NTNU. This is the reason why I would like to support DION’s work by applying to join the 2019-2020 board. Should I be given this opportunity, I offer to focus on two areas: visibility and internationalization.

I would aim at continuing to increase DION’s visibility and facilitating the access to the resources DION offers by PhD candidates, post-docs, and temporary scientific employees. This involves exploring new channels of communication towards these staff as well as ensuring the dissemination of DION’s communication evenly across the different faculties and campuses.

Secondly, I would like to help promoting the development of international mobility and research opportunities for PhD candidates, post-docs, and temporary scientific employees by making sure that their needs and interest are taken into account in the implementation of NTNU’s internationalization priority. This involves gathering information that can be feedback to the university but also facilitating access to information regarding international mobility and collaboration opportunities that matches the needs and constrains.

I strongly believe that concrete steps in these two areas would contribute to improve the opportunities and working environment offered to PhD candidates, post-docs, and temporary scientific employees at NTNU and can be achieved within a year mandate. I would be honored to be given the chance support such projects as part of DION board for 2019-2020.

Davit Gigilashvili

PhD Candidate
Department of Computer Science Gjøvik

Bio and Motivation:
My name is Davit Gigilashvili. I have served as a DION board member since last year. It has been a very rewarding experience, honor and pleasure to serve the interests of my colleagues from Gjøvik campus and beyond.
Now, when I have more experience, even more ideas and clear vision of what needs to be done for DION members, I would like to ask for your trust and support once again. I have set two primary goals to myself if re-elected: 1. Further increase involvement from all departments in Gjøvik. 2. Make monthly recurring social events for DION members to enable cross-department socialization on campus.
I believe that DION needs a board member on Gjøvik campus to promote DION and organize activities for them that would have been impossible without a board member permanently based in Gjøvik. Gjøvik-based temporary scientific employees need to have their voice heard, and to benefit from being part of the NTNU system.
Thank you!

Lisa Tietze


PhD Candidate
Department of Biotechnology and Food Science

Bio:
Lisa Tietze is currently a PhD candidate in the NV faculty, Department of Biotechnology and Food Science. She fell in love with Norway when she did her ERASMUS student exchange in Trondheim in 2014/15. Originally, she comes from Germany where she studied Bimolecular Engineering at the Technical University Darmstadt. During that time, she became a part of a fraternity and was elected as a board member. Fraternity life meant being responsible for many different tasks including organization of different activities. Shouldering responsibility has been a big part of Lisa’s life also before studying when she helped out at home, as she has four younger siblings, all of them at least 13 years younger than she is. Besides studying, her main focus is on the sport quidditch. Quidditch has become a substantial part of her life in the past five years, not only as a player. Within the quidditch community, she has filled different roles such as being board member of the German national governing body, coach and referee. This experience helped her to strengthen her skills in team work and decision making. In the past year, she has been a board member of DION.

Motivation:
I enjoy my PhD life in Trondheim a lot. Part of the reason is the good working environment and offers from different entities 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 work on strengthening the stance DION has in the structure of NTNU and therefore gain more impact on the work that is being done. Another important aspect of DION’s work is the advisor role for people with work related problems. I always 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.

Mattia Veroni


PhD candidate
Department of Information Security and Communication Technology

Bio:
I am a 28yo PhD candidate at the department of Information Security and Communication Technology (IIK) at NTNU.
I come from Italy and I moved to Norway at the beginning of November 2018.
After 3 years at the Medicine school in Modena (Italy), I realised the Mathematics was what I wanted to do for the rest of my working life, so I got my bachelor degree in Mathematics at the university of Modena and Reggio Emilia.
I got my Master’s degree in Coding theory and Cryptography (Mathematics) in Trento and I had the opportunity to spend 4 years in the great North, so here I am.
I have a 4 years contract as research fellow at NTNU and I am focusing on NIST’s candidates for post-quantum cryptosystems, with a particular focus on Isogeny-based cryptography.

Motivation:
Being a newbie as Norwegian and researcher was not very pleasant. At the beginning I (as any non-Norwegian newcomer) had to face lots of difficulties, some of them related to meeting new people and finding something to do during my free time.
DION has such a broad offer that it is impossible not to find something interesting and funny to do. I joined the random-coffees and the choir for temporary staff. Lots of friends are very happy about the språk-kafe and I was impressed by the amount of activities that are offered by DION, such as Skiing trips and Shuffle-board nights.
I also found DION helpful when it comes to Norwegian regulations, totally different from the Italian ones, for example.
I would like to promote the current activities organised by DION, which are already efficient in connecting temporary staff and creating a safe net against an unknown bureaucracy.
As a newcomer myself, I can provide a fresh point of view on the necessities and the problems that one might face while trying to settle down in a foreign country.
I think that anyone of us can do something to improve his working and living environment, so I hope I will be given the chance to play my part.

Erland Årstøl


Phd candidate
Department of Biotechnology and Food Science

Bio and motivation:

My name is Erland Årstøl, and I’m a PhD candidate working at the Department of Biotechnology and Food Science. I’m a 28-year-old Norwegian, and I’ve lived here in Trondheim for the last nine years.
Being a temporary employee at NTNU either as a Phd candidate, postdoc or in other positions can be immensely rewarding, but is clearly not without challenges. Having a support network that can help you deal with any issue that may arise is important, particularly for the many international workers at NTNU. Many in academia struggle with anxiety, depression, and stress, and I believe that DION can take an active role in combating these issues. Last year, DION organized a successful event concerning mental health, and I believe that this topic should be a central theme for the organization moving forward. If I’m elected to the board, I will work on organizing events, spreading information and in general making sure that DION does whatever it can to help employees struggling with mental health issues.
Effective communication is crucial to DION being an impactful organization, and I believe that I have something to offer in this regard. Before I started my doctorate, I worked as a freelance journalist, at the regional newspaper Adresseavisen and as the editor of the student newspaper Under Dusken. Hopefully, these experiences will enable me to communicate effectively with temporary employees at NTNU.
I believe that my motivation, background and organizational skills would make me a good board member for DION, and I hope that you will entrust me with this responsibility.

Masab Khalid Annaqeeb

PhD Candidate
Department of Energy and Process Engineering

Bio:
I am a PhD candidate at the department of Energy and Process Engineering. My background consists of a bachelors in Civil Engineering (Osmania University, India) and a masters in Sustainable Critical Infrastructure (Masdar Institute, United Arab Emirates). At NTNU, my research is involved the Indoor Environment group, wherein I am working to improve simulations of energy related occupant behavior in buildings, in order to optimize building design.
Both my previous academic experiences were accentuated with my involvement in the respective university’s sustainability clubs, as well as being a board member for the college chapter of the Indian Concrete Institute.
Motivation:
As a newcomer to both NTNU and Norway, DION was my first point of contact for providing information and resources regarding temporary employees, as well as serving as the channel for all the social and cultural happenings at NTNU. My motivation for joining the board is twofold.
First, and foremost, is my desire to give back to the community I gained so much from, using the best of my skills and experience as an active member of student organizations to help keep this community thriving. As PhDs ad Postdocs, 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, which is something I would be very interested in boosting.
Secondly, my goal is also to foster more inclusion and diversity in the events conducted through DION. One means of accomplishing this task is collaboration with other organizations, such as the NTNU-based LGBTQ+ network, and groups for people with special needs. DION provides amazing opportunities to connect with different individuals, and this can be improved by making it more accommodating to a more diverse group of people.
Considering my background and motivations, I hope to be a valuable asset to the organization.

 

Tor Anders Bye

PhD-candidate
Department of Sociology and Political Science

Bio and motivation:

My name is Tor Anders Bye, and I am currently employed as a PhD-candidate of sociology at the Department of Sociology and Political Science at NTNU. Albeit my doctoral project is centered on digital transformation and the impact that digitalization has on the Norwegian public sphere in the context of democratic participation and deliberation through the use of social networking sites, my professional interests extend much further into the discipline of sociology. Before my doctoral project, I was involved in a number of research projects with attachment to NTNU in the capacity of scientific assistant, as well as actively participating and involved in the enterprise of the Sociology Clinic, an independent co-working space run primarily by sociologists with affiliations to NTNU.
Being a fairly fresh PhD-candidate with great passion for my discipline and contemplating a future career in academia, I am well aware of the perils that come with electing to pursue tenure in any field or discipline. Anyone seeking a career in pursuit of scientific endeavor will face years of temporary employment and adversity in adjusting to ever-changing working conditions with which little to no altercation can be made. Due to such concerns, I regard it as a personal (if not professional) obligation to dedicate some time towards investigating and deliberating on the subject of working conditions for all temporary staff in any respective academic institution to which I am currently affiliated. As your president, I will be committed to forwarding the discussion on core issues that DION is concerned with.