The Faculty of Technical Sciences can soon welcome Brian Vinter, who will be acting as the vice-dean for research from 1. August 2020. He comes from a position as a professor at the Niels Bohr Institute and as the head of the High Performance Computing Centre (HPC) at the Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen.

Professor Brian Vinter's research began in 1994 at the University of Tromsø, Norway, after completing an MSc in computer engineering at Aalborg University. Since then, his career has taken him to the University of Southern Denmark, Princeton, CERN and, most recently, the Niels Bohr Institute at the University of Copenhagen, where Brian Vinter has been working in the intersection between high-performance data processing and, in particular, industrial applications. At the Niels Bohr Institute, he headed projects within a number of new technologies such as grid computing and HPC facilities.

However, for the past five years, he has not been involved in major research projects, because he has primarily been teaching, and he has increasingly taken on the role as leader in various contexts. In the past years, he has been responsible for establishing and developing a data-driven research infrastructure at faculty level, with scalability, operational reliability and information security as core points.

The right combination

For Dean Eskild Holm Nielsen, the new vice-deans' combination of management experience, network and research means that the faculty will be well placed for bringing academic disciplines into action and for driving sustainable development forward:

"This is important to the faculty, which will now have a strong leader profile. We had a large and strong field of applicants, and we chose Brian Vinter following a thorough recruitment process: primarily because his professional profile fits well with the strategic work of the Dean's Office, but also because he can support the faculty's focus on the green transition, engineering and digitalisation. I’m convinced that he’ll be able to contribute to the faculty's development, and I very much look forward to our collaboration," says Dean Eskild Holm Nielsen.

A common aspect of Brian Vinter's work is precisely external collaboration and relations. He has been working closely with the industry, focusing on food production and the development of different technologies for pig farms, potato growing, beer brewing, etc.

The latter is also a private hobby of his that allows him to relax and enjoy a home-brewed beer after a long day at work.

Brian Vinter will be based in Roskilde, but he will also be working at other AU locations. Not least at the beginning:

"The Faculty of Technical Sciences has many strong academic environments at the highest international level within a wide range of disciplines. I'm very honoured to have been appointed as the new vice-dean. I'll

take a humble approach to my new tasks, and I can’t wait to start working with the faculty staff. I look forward to visiting the departments when I start in August," says the future Vice-dean Brian Vinter.

The appointment of Brian Vinter completes the establishment of the future Dean's office of the Faculty of Technical Sciences.