Kasper Hansen: “It’s usually sleep that I cut down on”

When I was little, we shouted “professor” at kids who said something smart. I grew up on the island of Als, far out in the countryside. The university was as far away as the moon, and I never imagined that I would become an academic. I actually wanted to be a musician or a paramedic, but my great interest in scuba diving and a number of coincidences brought me here. And I’m happy that they did. It all comes together and makes sense now.

I have opted out of spending time on social media. And I have a little time tracker that records my working hours. I turn it on when I get to work and turn it off when I go home, and the same if I am working in the evenings. I don’t get any more or less done using a time tracker, but it makes it easier to exploit the flexibility. I can take a morning off when I know – and can see in black and white – that I have worked more than the prescribed working week.

I often take my work home with me. Via remote access I can easily work with scanning analysis methods in the evening when the children are put to bed, and I write many applications in the late-night hours. I previously worked with diving physiology and built a prototype for a scanning-compatible pressure chamber, which I mostly did at home. When my working day formally ends, I tend to carry the issues I deal with in my research home with me. In that way, work and leisure time often blend together for me, and I like that. As an employee of the Department of Forensic Medicine I am acquainted with tragic cases, but fortunately I can close them off when I go home.

It’s usually sleep that I cut down on when there are deadlines on the way. For me, there aren’t any fewer tasks just because there are hard deadlines. So, I often work right up to the deadline, and if I want to prioritise my family as well, which I do, then it’s my sleep time that loses out.

My partner is also a researcher. We’re in the same boat and we know what the job demands. It’s a great advantage that we understand each other’s challenges – but perhaps also a bit of a disadvantage because we are both very involved in our research careers. It’s not naturally one of us who bears a heavier burden than the other on the home front. We share the housework and duties equally, and we both need to have a certain amount of space, because we have the same career ambitions.

We spent two years in England. We probably did that mostly to live up to the demands and expectations. We both had a research stay at the University of Leicester. It was worthwhile and a great family experience, but it was also demanding and challenging in terms of productivity. We were there throughout the Covid pandemic, so we both had to work in a home office, with two children to look after and no support network. We taught the children at home for seven months and worked at home for more than a year. We made the best of it, I think, but they were not ideal research conditions.

I would like to see more help for families travelling abroad for research stays. We spent a long time making the stay abroad work out. There are innumerable administrative challenges – such as finding out about the tax and insurance rules in connection with rented housing. At the same time, it is very resource-intensive to be far away from your family network and getting the children to thrive in school and nursery. Our period abroad was financially unprofitable, but we’re still glad we did it, because it’s inspiring to be taken out of your usual surroundings. Spending periods abroad is a high priority at the university, and I understand that, but it takes a lot of energy to move abroad as a family with small children, so it would be great if there was also a corresponding degree of support.

It’s not the dream of a professorship that drives me, but a permanent position would be nice. In a tenure-track appointment I’m well on the way, but I haven’t really “made it” yet. Everything is a bit uncertain, and this also spreads to life outside the university, where, for example, it’s more difficult to get a loan for housing when you have short-term, temporary positions. But despite all the challenges, I am driven by the fact that my job is extremely motivating, meaningful and exciting.