Jenny Palm - new Director of the IIIEE

By Li Strandberg - published 31 January 2022

Jenny Palm with Lund and the cathedral in the background. Photo.

Jenny Palm has been appointed to the position of Director and Lena Neij, who has temporarily been managing the institute in 2021, will go back to focusing on research. Jenny holds a role as Professor in Sustainable Urban Governance at the IIIEE since 2017 and will start in her new role February 1.

Fredrik Andersson, Chairman of the IIIEE board and Professor at Lund University School of Economics and Management, has been leading the recruitment process of a new Director.

“I am very pleased that Jenny Palm has accepted to take on the role as Director of the Institute for the coming years. Her clear vision for the Institute, strongly grounded in the existing strategy and the current successful trajectory, and her commitment to an inclusive leadership that fosters engagement will serve the Institute very well. I am grateful for the engagement and support from the board of the Institute, faculty and staff, and the University, in the recruitment process”.

Fredrik Andersson. Photo. — Fredrik Andersson, chairman of the IIIEE board

Get to know our new Director – a short interview with Jenny Palm

Congratulations on your promotion to Director! What do you see as the biggest strengths of the IIIEE?

Thank you! I’m really honored for the possibility to lead the IIIEEE. The IIIEE has so many strengths, but the most important is all our committed and engaged staff and students, willing to contribute to the development of the institute. The IIIEE is its people and we are fortunate to have and constantly attract the best ones.

Tell us a little bit about yourself.

I have been at the IIIEE since 2017. I started as professor and coordinator for the Urban transformation theme. I have a research background in environmental and energy systems studies, usually with an interdisciplinary policy focus. I have done interdisciplinary work in my whole career. Before 2017, I worked at Linköping University and their interdisciplinary TEMA department.

I’m married to Jonas and we have 2 children which both however are adults now. The first years I commuted between Lund and Linköping, but the whole family moved to Lund in July 2019 and we have not regretted that. We all love Lund and the international character the city has.

What’s your vision for the IIIEE and how do you see the institute evolving?

I’m a big fan of our existing vision where we emphasize the need to advancing sustainable solutions. For the future I want us to keep a solution-oriented approach in both education and research. The IIIEE should continue to respond to the major climate and sustainability challenges of today and do this in collaboration with all our societal and academic partners in Lund, Skåne, Sweden and the world. Interdisciplinarity is a key value and I will support a further development of both inter- and transdisciplinary research and education.

But mostly I would like to see the IIIEE evolving as an attractive working place, where staff and students meet, collaborate, engage in endless discussions and constantly bring in crazy or excellent ideas and simply just enjoy hanging around.

What is something you like to do outside of work that would surprise people?

I love to watch the old classical British crime series, such as Midsummer Murders, Inspector Morse, Lewis, Unforgotten, Broadchurch, Vera, Sherlock, Endeavour… I have seen them all. And the good thing by turning older is that you forget the different episodes so you can see them over and over again!