Uppsala is reawakening from its summer slumbers as the city fills up again with students. Tomorrow I will welcome the first-year students in the newly renovated University Main Building. Yesterday Anders welcomed our record number of international students there, in a packed Grand Auditorium. On Monday it will be time to welcome the students at Campus Gotland. The housing situation is always a bit tricky at the start of term, and I am grateful to everyone who has heeded our appeal to rent out a room for a short or longer period.
Work is in full swing, with meetings here in Uppsala and in Stockholm. I have met my Stockholm colleagues in the Stockholm–Uppsala University Network (SUUN) and had meetings to discuss SciLifeLab. Next week several international visitors are coming from China, Vietnam and the United States. Now it feels as if we’ve got going again properly after our summer break. One thing that makes the beginning of this term feel extra special is our move to the Segerstedt Building. The local paper UNT has run several reports on the move this past week and as I said in the interview there, I’m particularly pleased that being in the new building will give me a chance to meet many more colleagues and students every day. Next week, on Friday 1 September, we are having an official opening ceremony to which everyone in the University is invited – an opportunity to open our new home to our colleagues in the faculties and departments. On Culture Night on 9 September, the Segerstedt Building will be open to the general public. Our vision is and has been a building where we can work together, a welcoming building, a building for meetings, support and service, for education and research at our world-leading University. I bid you a warm welcome!