"Knut knows everything"

The superlatives flow freely when people are asked to describe Professor Knut Conradsen. Colleagues and students variously relate that he knows everything, has an opinion about everything, is entertaining and pleasant, and can work 24/7 (almost) as long as he has his caffeine.

There is even a story that Knut once arrived to give his first lecture on a course and already knew the names of all 90 participants. It may be apocryphal, but it is certainly not unlikely. Knut’s capacity for work is legendary. As are his lectures. Thousands of young people have received their introduction to statistics and image analysis through him, and have benefited from his remarkable ability to make complex correlations seem simple and straightforward. And hundreds of students have enjoyed his supervision on their thesis and PhD projects.

This may also go some way to explaining why Knut does not feel ready to ‘hang up his boots’ and slip into life as a pensioner, even though he is 71 years old and celebrated his 50th anniversary of service to the state at a reception held at DTU Compute towards the end of September.

“Contact with students is invigorating. I find standing in front of a group of inquisitive young people keen to mine your skills and competences to be hugely inspiring, and it helps keep you mentally agile—it may be a little pretentious to say ‘young’, but certainly mentally younger than you otherwise would be,” relates the newly anointed Professor Emeritus.

Knut still comes into his office every day, but his new status means an end to the scheduled lectures and will probably result in his office hours gradually changing so that they better align with his habit of sitting up until the small hours of the morning. Even though he himself claims to be able to make do with just three or four hours’ sleep.

“I’ve never slept more than that. If you’re committed to what you do, you don’t need to sleep half your life away,” he emphasizes.

On the other hand, he is skilled at taking power naps, even during his lectures or get-togethers, as one of his colleagues—Bjarne Kjær Ersbøll—has noted:

“If he considers the value of what’s being said to be less than that of taking a quick nap, he can easily drift off. But like a satellite in outer space, he still has an ‘active sensor’ that registers everything going on around him, and he can wake up again in an instant, ready with a pertinent comment.”

Another part of what makes Knut tick is that he is a bit of a caffeine junkie; he admits to sinking at least 20 cups of coffee and a respectable volume of Cola Light every day.

Knut Conradsen in a robot room where the image databases used to prepare algorithms for image recognition are built up. Photos: Joachim Rode

The polyhistorian

“Knut knows everything; not just about his own field, but also about many other areas, about the history of DTU and about what’s happening in the world,” relates Professor Helle Rootzén, former Head of Department at DTU Compute. His home is also packed with books, from floor to ceiling. He is quite simply inquisitive by nature.

“I’m most interested in history, particularly the two world wars, and I’m fascinated by biographies of the great figures who influenced them. These people pushed themselves to their limits and naturally have both dark and light sides to their characters. But it’s always interesting to read their views on life,” adds Knut, who has recently been dipping into Winston Churchill’s My Early Life.

Knut is also known to refer to events and incidents in various wars, pointing out the relationship between military and management strategies.

At school, he was especially good at maths, but he also found the field of geology fascinating, and could have gone either way when it came to choosing the direction for his studies. Mathematics finally won out, because—he reasoned logically—it would be daft to choose a profession with high unemployment.

That said, he never truly lost touch with geology, and he subsequently found room for it in his research universe. Knut specialized in statistics because he soon saw that this would allow him to work with people from a wide range of fields. And after joining DTU, he launched the research area of ‘Statistical image analysis’, which was inspired by his second love: geology.

Working with the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS), he conducted statistical calculations of chemical samples taken from below ground in Greenland. Later on, when satellite data became available, Knut was one of the first people to come up with ideas for comparing the chemical samples with satellite images so as to create tools for predicting the location of mineral deposits on the basis of the pictures.

Over the years, statistical image analysis has developed into the largest section of DTU Compute, with areas of application extending far beyond geology to encompass industrial and medical purposes, for example, as well. Furthermore, research projects completed by his group have resulted in the establishment of more than 20 companies.

The university leader

Even though his research was progressing at great rate, there came a time when Knut chose to switch to the administrative side.

“I had all kinds of ideas about what worked, and what didn’t. And I’ve never waited around for someone else to do something about the things I thought needed fixing,” he explains.

He therefore became a member of the first DTU Senate following the amendment of the Local Government Act (Styrelsesloven) in 1973, and sat on the finance committee, where all the most important decisions were taken. He spent ten years as a head of department, followed by fifteen years as executive vice president, provost. He has therefore witnessed multiple major changes in the history of DTU—including the switch from public university to self-governing institution, and the great merger with five sector research institutions.

In his opinion, however, the most challenging assignment of all was the HR adjustment that had to be made around the turn of the millennium because the universities had seen their funding under the Danish Appropriations Act cut year after year, and it was becoming increasingly necessary to compete for external funding.

“When I was taken on, the mantra was ‘teaching, teaching, teaching’, and some employees ended up as what were known as ‘zero-researchers’. Something had to be done about the situation if DTU was to maintain a strong position in the battle for external funding. The decision affected a large number of employees, and I think this was the hardest thing I’ve done from a purely personal perspective.”

A wonderful life

Wherever Knut goes, there are people who just have to come over to say hello, ask for an opinion or simply have a quick chat.

“He gets on with people from all walks of life, and is equally at ease chatting with a squatter as with a prime minister of a member of the royal family,” relates Bjarne Ersbøll.

A number of PhD students also comment on Knut’s innate sense of decency: no matter how busy he may be, he always has time to talk about life in general and to ask how things are going at a more personal level. He is happy to share his wisdom and experience, and he is adept at generating a pleasant atmosphere at meetings because he always makes time for people to get to know each other.

On account of the merger, Knut spent 15 years rather than the usual 12 as executive vice president, provost, which meant he was 65 before he finally returned to the world of research. However, he had managed to stay up-to-date with his chosen field in parallel with handling the demanding administrative assignments, for example by participating in a number of academic committees—both national and international. Knut also has more waking hours at his disposal than most people, of course.

“Some people have asked whether it’s tough no longer being the one who makes all the decisions. I don’t think it is, because I’ve already made all the decisions I wanted to. It’s actually a pleasure to return to the role of ‘ordinary employee’ whose world revolves around research and teaching. My career was never laid out in detail, so it’s turned out to be a wonderfully designed life.”

CV

Knut Conradsen lives with is wife, Betsy, in Holte, Denmark. They have a grown-up daughter. 2016: Professor Emeritus 1995–2010: Executive Vice President, Provost  1982–94: Department manager and head of department for IMSOR and IMM on several occasions 1974–94: Elected to the Senate and member of the finance committee for multiple periods. 1992: Professor in statistical image analysis at IMSOR 1970: Amanuensis at IMSOR—Department for Matematical Statistics and Operation Analysis—at Danmarks Tekniske Højskole (now called DTU) 1970: MSc in Mathematics from the University of Copenhagen, specializing in probability theory and statistics 1966: Instructor at the University of Copenhagen