Anders Hagstedt hails from Östergötland and moved to Uppsala at the age of 20 to study chemistry and physics at the university. There he did his research career - and ended up as a professor of physical chemistry.
- I played drums and was an active ping pong player as a youngster. It was between becoming a ping pong coach or starting to pitch, and that was the latter.
Currently, Hagstedt is a prominent solar cell researcher at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, Switzerland.
- Obviously it feels difficult to leave the lab, I have some to do to hand over the work to my colleagues. But I look forward to the job as principal, and I have my adult children in Uppsala. There will be some trips to the university this fall to meet with the management before we finally move.
"Unique location"Anders Hagstedt sees Uppsala University as a unique place to be headmaster.
- It will be a lot to get to know in the beginning. Uppsala University has an exciting whole that is complete across all areas. As headmaster, I hope to be able to achieve that the different areas cooperate to an even greater extent than they already do. Then we can create multidisciplinary projects that I think can be unique in the world.
On Monday, the decision was handed over to the government, which will push through the proposal. Anders Hagstedt is expected to take up his new post on January 1, 2021.
In the clip above you can hear more about Hagstedt and how he views the role of headmaster at the university.