When Anders Bjarklev takes his dogs for a walk through the woods close to his home north of Roskilde, he enjoys feeling the wind in his face and letting his thoughts take flight. The feeling is almost same when he is digging in his garden, mowing the lawn or calculating dimensions for a new DIY project. For Anders, this is pretty much as good as it gets.
And it is here that he finds inspiration for the most important speech of the year—the Commemoration Day speech. For the past two or three months, he has been trying out ideas and formulations during walks with Mango, his border terrier. It is here that he picks and chooses his material and adds new perspectives.
The speech begins to take its final shape in the last two weeks before Commemoration Day, where thousands of students, staff, representatives of the business community and diplomats sit expectantly alongside HRH Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, waiting to hear what is on the mind of the President of DTU.
Maintaining a positive tone
“The Commemoration Day speech is the one opportunity I have during the year to express my enthusiasm and my respect for the staff and students at DTU, and to delight in our partnership with the business community and the public sector,” says 53-year-old Anders Bjarklev.
“I have to maintain a positive and optimistic tone, but there should also be room for a bit of bite. Last year, for example, I couldn’t help but touch on the Study Progress Reform, which prejudices DTU students in several areas. While I’m not allowed to oppose anything outright, it is my responsibility to protect our students—as far as I possibly can.”
According to Anders himself, his adrenalin level starts to fall slightly once the official part of the Commemoration Day celebrations is behind him. He can then start looking forward to mingling and meeting people he does not have the opportunity to talk to on a daily basis. This is where he hears more immediate reactions and comments than he is used to, which allows him to ‘take the temperature’ of the working relationship between staff and students. If everything goes according to plan, he does not leave until 5 a.m.
"The Commemoration Day speech is the one opportunity I have during the year to express my enthusiasm."
Anders Bjarklev, President of DTU
Behind 20 patents
In addition to being extremely courteous, Anders Bjarklev is renowned for being an enterprising and committed president with a strong entrepreneurial streak. Before becoming President of DTU, for instance, he was involved in setting up two companies based on some of the 20 or so patents that are the result of his research in the field of optical wave conductors and photonics.
He is the author of more than 150 scientific articles published in international publications, he has taught courses in electromagnetism and optical communication at DTU, and he held the position of visiting professor at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
“As president, I often have to draw on various areas of experience from my career. It is important for me to remember what it was like to be a student, and to work as a professor and an active researcher. Even though that was many years ago. The fact that I have worked so many types of job at DTU means that when I have to make decisions, I can still view the issue from the perspective of a student and/or a staff member,” relates Anders Bjarklev.
Started with the moon landing
Anders’ interest engineering dates back to 1969, when he and his family on Fyn gathered around their TV set to watch the flickering black and white film of the moon landing. For a while, he was sure that he was destined to be a physicist, given his fascination with maths and physics.
Then one day in high school, he and a friend listened to a presentation by a PhD student from DTU. After half an hour, he knew that was where he wanted to study.
“I chose to become an engineer on account of the moon landing, where I saw things I honestly didn’t think were possible. But it was also because I wanted to get involved in making things better for people everywhere. When, later on in my career, I decided to work with telecommunications, it was because I thought we could make the world a better place by designing systems that allowed people to communicate better with each other,” explains Anders Bjarklev.
Big fan of Ørsted
Anders believes it is essential for DTU to live up to H.C. Ørsted’s desire to be a benefit to society. According to the DTU President, the University is already working hard to create a better world.
Everyone from the employees working with systems biology and striving to cure diseases, to those focusing on alternative energy with a view to making the world a little cleaner, and those devoting their time and energy to coming up with more efficient engines and to constructing robust buildings of environmentally appropriate materials.
“I want to help create a university that makes a difference and generates affluence in Denmark. One of DTU’s pet causes is our role as an innovative partner to the business community. DTU is to help create a variety of jobs through the people we educate and the knowledge we generate. In this way, we will be able to lay the foundations for current and future enterprises,” says Anders Bjarklev.
Find the positive aspects
He did not lay out his own career as a 20-year plan. Instead, he has attempted excel throughout his career.
“We need to remember to enjoy being where we are in our lives. This applies equally in relation to our education, work, and family life. I think there is a tendency for people, when they are young, to think: ‘If only I were a little older, earned a bit more money, or had more influence’.”
“And then as you grow old, you yearn to be young again. In reality, it’s always tempting to dream about things being different to how they actually are. However, I think it’s important to find the positive aspects in our lives and to focus on how and where we can make a difference.”
Portrait in DTUavisen no. 5, May 2015.
Anders Bjarklev was born in 1961. He lives in Roskilde and is married to Araceli. They have two children, aged 20 and 23.
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2011: President of DTU
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2010: Executive Vice President, Provost of DTU
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2004: Head of Department, DTU Fotonik
1999: Professor
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1995: Dr.Techn.
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1988: PhD
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1985: Graduated from DTU with an MSc in Engineering
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