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The Team

FNUG Is Growing

The team at FNUG is growing

By Lisbet Foged, , 1/7/2025

Throughout 2024, the team at FNUG has grown. Two Associate Professors and a few PhD students have joined, and more are on the way. This is partly due to the 125 million DKK grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation to establish the Center for University Science Education – also known as the USE Center – which is driving the expansion. Read more here about this grant and about Professor and head of FNUG, Connie Svabo's role in this historically significant investment.

PhD fellows

Currently, seven PhD fellows are affiliated with FNUG, and the article series about them continues. Read the first four articles here about:
Maiken Westen Holm Svendsen, who researches evaluation in and with STEM,
Søren Krogh Hansen, who researches early mathematical awareness in daycare,
Karen Bollingberg, who researches educators' science competences and professionalism in daycare
Katrine Bergkvist Borch, who does research on STEM education in formal and informal learning environments.

Stay updated on FNUG's website and read about the other PhD students throughout 2025:

Tina Maria Brinks, who researches Professional Learning Communities among science teacher educators.
Jonas Vistrup, who researches artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and programming languages. Specifically, he is working on creating AI tools for legal experts in Danish traffic law.
Therese Malene Nielsen started as a PhD student in NAFA on January 1, 2025. Therese Malene Nielsen researches slow science in primary school. She is employed at UC Nord and affiliated with FNUG, with Connie Svabo as her main supervisor and Morten Christensen (UCL) as her co-supervisor.

New Associate Professors and new roles

Gitte Miller Balslev, who has been affiliated with FNUG for the past few years as a lecturer in innovation within STEM education, will from January 2025 also – in collaboration with Cita Nørgård – serve as liaison in the new University Science Education program (USE). USE aims to develop methods and generate knowledge on how to deliver high-quality science education at the university level.

Dorte Moeskær Larsen, who has been employed at FNUG for several years, has now been appointed as an Associate Professor from February 1, 2025. Dorte Moeskær Larsen is a mathematics educator with a particular focus on STEM didactics at all levels of education. She is the project leader for LabSTEM, and a member of the editorial board for MONA – a journal for educators, communicators, and researchers in mathematics and science didactics. Read here about the professional portrait of Dorte Moeskær Larsen.

Emanuela Marchetti started as an Associate Professor in Computer Science Education Research at FNUG on January 1, 2025. She is also the head of the SDU satellite under the new University Science Education program (USE). Emanuela Marchetti has an interdisciplinary profile with a master's degree in medieval archaeology (University of Torino) and a master's degree in IT product design (University of Southern Denmark). Her PhD thesis (Aalborg University)  focused on museum learning practice and digital technologies. She researches creative approaches to Computer Science Education and science, with a focus on design- and art-based learning methods and practice-oriented research in AI for academic writing.  

Michael Petersen, who has been affiliated with FNUG for a few years, through the Novo Nordisk Foundation’s grant for the project Min Digitale Kompetenceportfolio (My Digital Competency Portfolio), will be connected to FNUG as a 50% Associate Professor from March 1, 2025. Michael Petersen will focus particularly on building and utilizing skills in quantitative studies of education; specifically, he will lead the follow-up research project in My Digital Competency Portfolio project.

Rie Troelsen, Head of SDU Centre for Teaching and Learning with 25% research as an Associate Professor at FNUG, where she is part of the team behind the USE program. Rie Troelsen's primary research area is the physical learning environment, particularly the interaction between the space and the teaching that takes place in it

Cita Nørgård, a special consultant at SDU Centre for Teaching and Learning with 25% at FNUG as liaison in the new University Science Education program (USE), which means that Cita Nørgård, together with Gitte Miller Balslev, will build the connection between USE and the programs at the Faculty of Science.

Gabrielė Characiejienė, MA in philosophy of education with experience in projects on educational innovation and policy of education, has started at FNUG as a research assistant. Gabrielė Characiejienė will work on the project STEPS.

Activities

During 2024, FNUG employees have participated in many conferences, see the green list on the right. In particular, Connie Svabo gave a keynote presentation and facilitated a co-created exhibition at the DASERA seminar on nature, aesthetic learning processes and identity.

Internships

Company interns played a major role at FNUG in 2024. In the autumn, four interns started: Berfin Colak Oguz, Andrea Dietz Føge Jensen, Jannie Nielsen and Gloria Nielsen. We have sent the first three out into the world with the best recommendations.

Gloria Nielsen, cand. mag. in pedagogy, will continue her role as a company intern. Her tasks range from research support to communication.

Guest researchers and international visitors at FNUG

During 2024, we have had a number of guest researchers and international visitors, including:

Keith Devlin, Emeritus mathematician at Stanford University, and Adjunct Professor at SDU, visited FNUG throughout May 2024. During his visit, he gave a presentation titled "Instruments to Play Mathematics" at one of FNUG's research seminars. Keith Devlin teaches the course History of Mathematics alongside Chunfang Zhou, and he contributed an inspiring foreword to FNUG's book STEM Didactics. We look forward to welcoming Keith Devlin again this year when he visits FNUG in May.

Kimihiko Iwamura, founder and CEO of Valley Breeze Consulting in Silicon Valley, was hosted by FNUG in his learning journey to Denmark where he met representatives from participatory, human-centred design field, robotics, and business-research partnerships, and shared his knowledge on organizational learning and innovation

Elizabeth Vickers-Drennan from Yukon University in Canada, who coordinates youth STEM programs in Yukon, visited FNUG for a several-week stay funded by North2North.

Darlene CavalierProfessor at Arizona State University's School for the Future of Innovation in Society, has been appointed an honorary member of FNUG and the Citizen Science Knowledge Center for a five-year term. Read more about her appointment here. She visited SDU in October 2024, where she gave a talk titled "Citizen Science, Deliberative Democracy, and the Future of Public Engagement in Science" at an event at DIAS. Read more here.

Morten Christensen, PhD, Senior Lecturer in science at UCL, is affiliated with FNUG as a co-supervisor for PhD student Therese Malene Nielsen.

Thomas R. S. Albrechtsen, Associate Professor, PhD, MA in General Pedagogy, and head of the Research Program for School and Education at UC Syd, is a permanent visiting researcher at FNUG. Thomas and Connie jointly lead the LAVIN project. 

Here you can find all members affiliated with FNUG – STEM Education Research Center.

FNUG employees

Editing was completed: 07.01.2025