For the first time, NTNU’s doctoral awards will take place as a virtual ceremony. How can we re-create a formal ceremony in a virtual room?
Photo: Lone Sunniva Jevne is one of this year’s 384 PhDs who have completed the highest level of researcher education in academia. Here she is in a dialogue with the Dean and Director of the NTNU University Museum, Reidar Andersen. Photo: Julie Gloppe Solem/NTNU
Over the years, the doctoral awards ceremony to celebrate the completion of a PhD, hard work and a successful public defence has been held in the venerable auditorium of the Hovedbygningen on NTNU’s Gløshaugen campus. The building, which is more than 100 years old, has been the traditional venue for the event.
On Fridag 27 November, the ceremony will be conducted virtually for the first time. The 384 new graduates will then receive their diploma for completing their PhD.
The virtual ceremony starts at 12 noon and can be followed via this link.
Each PhD graduate will receive a personal greeting and congratulations
To create an experience that is both formal and personal, we have worked hard to find technical solutions and a new virtual twist for the ceremony. This is the programme for the broadcast:
The 384 PhDs receive a personal congratulatory greeting from the Dean of the relevant faculty. The 384 PhDs each receive a unique link to the ceremony, including their personal greeting.
They can share their personal link with the family, friends and colleagues, so that they can follow the ceremony together.
In this personalized virtual room, the PhDs can download their diploma, which is password protected. Here, they also get access to a presentation of all the other PhDs, as well as a world map showing the nationalities of all this year’s PhDs.
Representing the PhDs
Lone Sunniva Jevne is one of this year’s PhDs. She is taking part in the ceremony as the PhDs’ representative. Usually, her role would be to hold a speech for her fellow PhD graduates. The new twist this year is that she will be interviewed by the Dean and Director of the NTNU University Museum, Reidar Andersen.
She is sharing her link to show how the personalized event has been designed:
The link will be activated on Friday at 12 noon
Lone Sunniva Jevne is a marine biologist, and in her doctorate she has researched the dispersal mechanisms, distribution and density of the planktonic life stages of salmon lice and “skottelus” (Caligus elongatus). It is in the planktonic stages that salmon lice spread, sometimes over several kilometres, despite being the size of a dot. She is conducting research on seasonal variations in the density of lice larvae, how the density of lice larvae is affected by fallowing an area, and how the numbers of lice have varied in recent years in the designated area of Frøya North.
