A driving force in the North has left us
It is with great sorrow that UiT The Arctic University of Norway has received the news that former rector Professor Anne Husebekk passed away on 5 December after a period of illness.
Fifty years ago, a ski- and outdoors-loving young woman from the south came to Tromsø to study medicine. The combination of spectacular nature and exciting academic opportunities in the relatively new medical programme proved decisive in her choice. With great drive and devotion to the region, she would go on to become a significant academic leader and community builder in the North over many years.
After completing her medical studies in 1982, she served as a junior doctor on rotation in Finnsnes and Volda, in parallel with research training. Husebekk earned a PhD in immunology and transfusion medicine in 1989, and became a specialist and later a professor in the same field at UiT. Her scientific work is of impressive scope and has had solid impact internationally. It led her to roles including vice-president of the International Society of Blood Transfusion and visiting research commitments at prestigious institutions. Husebekk held the banner high for rigorous quality in research, but also for its application. It was therefore entirely natural for her to contribute actively to innovation and business creation when research results offered opportunities to develop new medical products.
When Husebekk assumed the position of rector in 2013, the merger with the then Finnmark University College had already been decided. But implementing it and building a shared organisation and culture remained. With a steady hand and a gentle tone, the Alta campus became a full-fledged and integrated part of UiT during Husebekk’s tenure. Through this work, Anne became well acquainted with, and deeply enthusiastic about, the Alta community and the drive she saw there. The mergers with the colleges in Narvik and Harstad were decided, initiated and carried out under Anne Husebekk’s leadership, with the same conviction that the region is built through a strong academic institution. With the former Engineering College in Narvik in the UiT family, the university gained broader academic scope and increased engineering expertise.
Rector Husebekk served at a time when cooperation with Russian institutions was both possible and desirable. A number of delegation visits supported and strengthened Norwegian–Russian cooperation at the institutional level. Through these, Husebekk also became personally well acquainted with several of the Russian university rectors. She was deeply affected when some of them, in strong terms, wholeheartedly supported the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Her international engagement was rooted in a genuine conviction that a university confined to the region in which it operates can never succeed in its societal mission. This was expressed especially through her work in the network of Arctic universities and research institutions, where she was deputy chair of the board, and through her efforts to persuade philanthropists of the value of donating funds to Arctic research. For her commitment to Arctic university collaboration, Professor Anne Husebekk was awarded Umeå University’s Medal of Merit in 2022, an honour conferred every three years for outstanding service to society.
The free and independent role of research, its responsibility and integrity, was of great importance to Anne Husebekk. This led her to positions in the International Science Council (ISC), the world’s largest global association of research organisations, where, as vice-president, she was specifically responsible for research integrity, responsibility and independence. Husebekk viewed with concern how research was increasingly mistrusted and misused in public debate, and how trust in researchers and research shows a declining trend. She stressed that trust in research cannot be taken for granted, and that it is also the researchers’ own responsibility to help ensure that high trust in research-based knowledge is maintained.
She had the ability to stand firm in the storm. For example, when it became clear to Husebekk that shared leadership at a university did not provide sufficient room for academic leadership. She succeeded in changing the model from shared to unified leadership, with the rector as the top leader of the university’s overall activities. Under Norwegian law, this entails that the rector is appointed by the board and not elected. That caused a storm, but Rector Husebekk was clear in her view: ‘A university should not be administered; it should be led, and led by the rector as the chief executive.’
After stepping down as rector, she led, among other things, the work to expand capacity at our medical education, served as acting director of the Centre for the Ocean and the Arctic, while also attending to her many board positions. Professor Husebekk was a member of His Majesty The King’s Council of the Order and herself a holder of the Order of St. Olav.
This autumn, UiT held a seminar in honour of Anne Husebekk in recognition of her academic leadership and role as a community builder. Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said in his speech: ‘Therefore, now—as Prime Minister—I will be a little formal, and recognise, thank and honour you, Professor, former rector, and soon you will turn 70.’ Unfortunately, Anne Husebekk did not reach the age of 70. It also meant that she did not have the chance to take the Prime Minister up Tromsdalstinden, on skis, as she had promised. But as Jonas Gahr Støre concluded: ‘We're allowed to keep dreams, and I will keep that dream.’
Anne Husebekk has left us, but the driving force lives on.
In deep gratitude on behalf of UiT The Arctic University of Norway
Dag Rune Olsen, Rector, UiT The Arctic University of Norway
