Margaret McNamee to become the next Dean of LTH

Margaret McNamee and Ulf Ellervik will take up their roles as Dean and Deputy Dean, respectively, on 1 January 2027.

The Nomination Committee proposed Margaret McNamee and Ulf Ellervik as a pair, with a shared leadership model, based on the conviction that LTH’s senior management benefits from complementary competences and close collaboration.

The intention is that, as Dean, Margaret McNamee will primarily be responsible for staff and organisational matters, research, and the development in Science Village.

As Deputy Dean, Ulf Ellervik is expected to focus on campus development, internationalisation, external engagement, and recruitment. However, the final division of responsibilities will also depend on the assistant deans appointed by the Dean of LTH.

During a hearing ahead of the election this past spring, Margaret McNamee and Ulf Ellervik summarised their shared vision for LTH: “LTH shall be an internationally leading engineering faculty that integrates research, education and innovation of the highest quality to address complex societal challenges.”

The next Dean and Deputy Dean of LTH are appointed for the term 2027–2029.

News on the hearing with candidates for the positions of incoming Dean and Deputy Dean – on LTHin

A partnership with a shared vision for LTH | LTHin

About Margaret McNamee

Margaret McNamee is Professor of Fire Safety Engineering at LTH, Faculty of Engineering at Lund University, and has served as LTH’s Deputy Dean with responsibility for research and research infrastructure since 2024.

McNamee was born in Australia on 19 September 1965 and obtained a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Sydney in 1986, the same year she moved to Sweden. She completed her PhD at Chalmers University of Technology in 1995 in Physical Chemistry, with a thesis on theoretical and experimental combustion studies.

For more than three decades, Margaret McNamee has worked in fire research, with a particular focus on the environmental and health impacts of fires. Her research addresses, among other things, emissions from fires and how sustainability perspectives can be integrated into fire safety work.

Following her PhD, she joined the then SP Swedish National Testing and Research Institute (later RISE Research Institutes of Sweden) where she held several senior positions. In 2014, she became Technical Director of SP, a role she retained during the transition to RISE. In 2017, she was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA), Division XI, focusing on education and research.

In 2018, Margaret McNamee was appointed Professor of Fire Safety Engineering at LTH.

In addition to her research, she has held several strategic leadership roles within LTH and Lund University, including positions on research boards and as Chair of the Board of NanoLund.

Her work in fire safety research has also received international recognition. In 2023, Margaret McNamee was awarded the Sjölin Prize by the International Forum of Fire Research Directors for excellence in fire research. The same year, she received the Dougal Drysdale Award from the International Association for Fire Safety Science.

Margaret McNamee’s profile in the Research Portal

About Ulf Ellervik

Ulf Ellervik is Professor of Bioorganic Chemistry at the Faculty of Engineering (LTH) at Lund University and Director of the Centre for Analysis and Synthesis (CAS).

Ellervik was born in Linköping on 7 December 1969 and moved to Lund in 1989 to study for a Master of Science in Engineering in Chemical Engineering at LTH. After graduating in 1993, he continued with doctoral studies in organic chemistry and obtained his PhD in 1998. He then worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) before returning to LTH, where he was later appointed Professor of Bioorganic Chemistry. He has also spent a term as a Visiting Professor at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore.

Ulf Ellervik’s research focuses on carbohydrates and bioorganic chemistry, with applications in drug development and medicinal chemistry. His research group studies, among other topics, how carbohydrates govern cell communication and disease progression, as well as the development of new therapeutic strategies for cancer and infectious diseases.

In 2018, Ulf Ellervik was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences (KVA), and in 2020 a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA).

Alongside his research, Ulf Ellervik is a well-known science communicator. He made his literary debut in 2011 with Ond kemi (“Bad Chemistry”), which was awarded the Pi Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for popular science writing. Since then, he has authored several books at the intersection of chemistry, history and culture. Ulf Ellervik has appeared as a presenter on the Swedish Radio programmes Sommar i P1 and Vinter i P1, and has participated in television programmes such as Skavlan and Fråga Lund.

Ulf Ellervik's profile in the Research Portal