VISTA Professors
From VISTA's strategy document:
The objective of the VISTA partnership is to "liberate" a researcher of excellent repute so that he or she can work full-time on research and research supervision within their field of expertise. In exceptional cases, part-time professorships may be considered.
The professorship is granted with the following provisos:
- There must be a research plan for the period of appointment.
- The professor will be working at a recognised research institution (university, research institute).
- The period of appointment is three years, with an option of a two-year extension.
- Salary is as professor in the upper range of the government salary scale. There is also an annual operating grant.
- The professor prepares an annual activity report for VISTA.
- It is also a condition that the institution where the professor has a workplace provides access, free of charge, to the services that are available to ordinary professors.
The VISTA Professorship is awarded on the basis of the following criteria:
- Candidates can be recruited internationally in instances where VISTA wants to build expertise in Norway in a key priority area.
- The candidate must be an international leader in his/her field and be willing to build up expertise and a new academic environment in Norway.
- Candidates can be recruited nationally when VISTA finds that a defined priority area would be best served by a resource person being able to concentrate 100 per cent on research in a scientific field. The candidate must have formal full professor competence and be recognised internationally.
- A professor scholarship may be granted to highly qualified and promising candidates within one of the VISTA priority areas. The scholarship is for a fixed term and requires that the host university commits to continuing its involvement. Cooperation with the universities is necessary to identify candidates for the professor scholarship.
Bernt Øksendal
In 1992 Bernt Øksendal was appointed as the very first VISTA Professor. A professor of mathematics at the University of Oslo, Øksendal has been affiliated with the VISTA project "Fluid flow in stochastic reservoirs" in the priority area "Improved recovery".
Read more
Ivar Giæver
Ivar Giæver has been associated with the research project "The physics of porous media" under Statoil's direction since 1989. He became a VISTA Professor in 1994.
Read more
Frode Fonnum
Frode Fonnum, professor of toxicology and research director at the Norwegian Defence Research Establishment, was made a VISTA Professor in 1996. He conducts research on the mechanisms of action in the central nervous system.
Read more
Trond H. Torsvik
Trond H. Torsvik, formerly Senior Scientist and programme director / team leader for the area Regional Geophysics at the Centre for Geodynamics at the Norwegian Geological Survey (NGU) and a professor at the University of Bergen and the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim, was made a VISTA Professor in 2000.
Read more
Ivar Aavatsmark
Aavatsmark holds a researcher I position at the Centre for Integrated Petroleum Research at the University of Bergen and a professor II position at the Department of Mathematics at the same university. His research focuses on mathematical methods for reservoir simulation.
Read more
Bjørn Ursin
Bjørn Ursin is a professor in the Department of Petroleum Engineering and Applied Geophysics at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) in Trondheim. His career in academia and in the oil industry spans four decades. Ursin has received numerous awards and honours. In 2010 he was made an honorary member of the Society of Exploration Geophysics. Bjørn Ursin became a VISTA Professor in 2008.
Read more