Kikki Kleiven is the new Bjerknes Centre director
Kikki Kleiven follows Tore Furevik as the direcor of Bjernes Centre, and will lead 200 climate researchers the coming four years.
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Kikki Flesche Kleiven is appointed new Director of the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research for a period of four years. She follows Tore Furevik, who leaves after eight years.
After a thorough process with six applicants, the choice is Kikki Kleiven. She has a relevant and solid scientific platform, and will take a clear and strong role in the outreach and communication of the Bjerknes Centre.
"The Bjerknes Centre has distinguished itself as one of the world's strongest climate research environments, and I am very pleased that we have found Tore Furevik's successor. Kikki Kleiven has all the prerequisites to lead the center further at a time when knowledge about the climate will become even more important," says Arvid Hallén, chairman of the board of the Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research.
Kikki Kleiven (52 years) is Associate Professor at the Institute of Earth Science, UiB. She took her PhD in marine geology at the University of Bergen in 2000, researching ocean sediments and how to read the past climate in these sediments. Kleiven has distinguished herself as a committed communicator of climate knowledge, and has been a member of the Bjerknes Centre since its inception 20 years ago – she knows the research, the environment and Norwegian society very well.
"Research is team sports and the Bjerknes Centre is in the top division of climate research in the world. It took time to learn to pull in the same direction, but when we first got started, the result was more than what any of us had imagined. I have ambitions for the center to be an important workplace and arena for new generations of Norwegian climate researchers, and to be a future-oriented and innovative knowledge and competence environment," says Kikki Kleiven.
The Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research is a partner organisation for the natural climate science in Bergen, where researchers are employed by one of the four partners, Institute of Marine Research, NORCE Research A/S, the Nansen Environmental and Remote Sensing Center and the University of Bergen.
The University of Bergen is the host institution for the Bjerknes Centre, and the University Board is the body that formally hires the director. The decision was made in a board meeting today June 17th, and the term of office begins July 1st, 2021.