Meet the new professors

Ole Henrik Hansen is a practitioner that became professor. He was educated as a social pedagogue in Denmark. He worked as leader of an institution for children before starting to study pedagogy at a higher level. He obtained a master’s degree in didactics at Aarhus University in Denmark and a doctoral degree in preschool didactics at the same university. He was then employed by Aarhus University, first as an assistant professor, then as an associate professor. In addition, Prof. Hansen has been employed as an associate professor at Gothenburg University, Oslo Metropolitan University and as a professor at UiT, The Arctic University of Norway.

Prof. Hansen's research has from the beginning of his career been focused on preschool children's learning and development conditions in institutionalized, professional contexts. This also includes research into the conditions of families with children and their parenting in welfare societies and also the development of the professional pedagogical competencies that are expected to replace the parents during the daytime.

Prof. Hansen has a comprehensive international and public outreach. He has been part of research collaborations that have explored preschool children's upbringing conditions in the Nordic countries, in Europe and globally. He has served as the head of international research groups in Early Childhood Education and Care associations, and he is often used as a public debater regarding child welfare and children’s conditions in our rich but also demanding welfare society.

Ole Henrik Hansen was appointed Professor of Education with special focus on preschool pedagogy, at the School of Education and Communication in January 2022.

Kerstin Johansen is a researcher in the field of integrating product and production development for future resilient and sustainable production systems. Prof. Johansen holds a Master of Science degree in Applied Physics from Uppsala University and a PhD degree in Assembly Technology from Linköping University. Before completing her doctoral degree, she worked for more than 10 years in the consumer electronics industry in various roles, all related to the industrialization challenges that concern bridging product development and production. After the doctoral degree, her research focused on the possibilities of emerging technologies and how they can contribute to the integration of product and production development, such as how human-robot collaboration can be utilized efficiently.

Prof. Johansen has a mission – to bridge academia and industry – and this is integrated into education as well as research activities, including the possibilities to fruitfully collaborate with the regional industry and organizations. This interactive way of working for over 10 years was honored by an award for collaboration from the regional network Automation Småland. Today, Prof. Johansen is the leader of the research environment in:sure – Integrated Product and Production development for Sustainability and Resilience - one of the three strategic areas in the research and educational environment, SPARK, within knowledge-intensive product realization at Jönköping University.

Industry is continuously challenged by new technologies, new materials, new requirements, and, more recently, circularity and sustainability. This requires continuous forward-thinking in how to apply and develop knowledge that can contribute to a more efficient and resilient industry that, in turn, contributes to societal needs. For Prof. Johansen, the drive for research and education is fueled by the question of how to integrate different areas in a beneficial way through the assimilation of technologies and competencies within or between organizations. As a member of the Swedish Production Academy, she contributes to the development of the Swedish Production Research Agenda.

Kerstin Johansen was appointed Professor of Integrated Product and Production development at the School of Engineering in April 2022.

Ola Norderyd graduated as a licensed dental surgeon in 1982 from the faculty of Odontology at Lund University. After working as a general dentist for some years, he specialized in periodontology and acquired a doctoral degree within the same field in 1998.

An important part (two years) of the doctoral research training, was spent as clinical investigator at the Periodontal Disease Research Center, School of Dental Medicine, SUNY in Buffalo, USA. Prof. Norderyd became Associate Professor (Docent) at the Faculty of Odontology in Malmö 2001. Since 1999 he has maintained a position as Senior Consultant at the Department of Periodontology, Institute for Postgraduate Dental Education, Region Jönköping County.

For the last decade, he has also been Clinical Director and Head of the same department. Prof. Norderyd has published continuously since 1990 within the area of odontology (the study of the structure and diseases of teeth) with a specific focus on periodontal (gum) health and disease. His expertise has been requested from several universities, both nationally and internationally, and he has been medical adviser to the National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) and to the Dental and Pharmaceutical Benefits Agency (Tandvårds- och läkemedelsförmånsverket).

Ola Norderyd was appointed Professor of Odontology at the School of Health and Welfare in June 2021.

Amir Pakpour was educated as a health psychologist at Tarbiat Modares University and obtained his doctoral degree from the same institution. After completing his doctoral degree, Prof. Pakpour spent nine years working within the Health Psychology programme at the Qazvin University of Medical Sciences in Iran, before beginning his career at the School of Health and Welfare.

As an interdisciplinary multi-method behavioural scientist, Prof. Pakpour is interested in engaging and developing applied, impactful, and cutting-edge lines of research within psychology and beyond, that have direct translational capabilities in order to help improve people's lives across different contexts including, but not limited to, the school context. Thus, Prof. Pakpour has interests in several fields and topics, such as health psychology, sleep and well-being, psychometrics, psychological assessment, cross-cultural psychology, digital marketing, computer-mediated-communication, and cyberpsychology.

Mental health promotion is a fairly young discipline that aims to promote positive mental health by increasing psychological well-being, competence and resilience, and by creating supportive living conditions and environments. It is a subject matter and research area that Prof. Pakpour holds very dear.

Amir Pakpour was appointed Professor of Clinical Science at the School of Health and Welfare in September 2021.

Timur Uman, who is originally from Latvia, came to Sweden on the Swedish Institute scholarship to pursue his Master of Science degree in International Business in 2002.

After the completion of his master’s degree Prof. Uman enrolled in the PhD program in Business Administration at Lund University, which he graduated from in 2012 after defending his dissertation entitled “The bottom line of cultural diversity at the top”. His thesis explored how cultural differences in the top management teams of Swedish listed corporations are reflected in the firms’ strategy and performance.

After his PhD, Prof. Uman worked at Kristianstad University and Linnaeus University as a lecturer, then as a post-doc, and subsequently as an assistant and associate professor in the fields of Corporate Governance and Auditing

Prof. Uman’s research primarily deals with management accounting in hybrid organizations, auditing and the audit profession, and corporate governance. His latest project on these topics deals with board behavior in Swedish municipal corporations. Prof. Uman is also passionate about researching on the subject of cultural diversity in teams. His latest project on this topic deals with cultural diversity within healthcare teams in the clinical environment and the consequences this may have for patient safety.

Timur Uman began working at Jönköping International Business School, Jönköping University, in 2019. After an initial period as a senior associate professor, he was promoted to Professor in Business Administration with focus on Accounting and Control in March 2022.