Welcome to ITA!

This page contains practical information and useful links for new employees at the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics (ITA). 

ITA is located in the Svein Rosselands hus (Sem S?lands vei 13) on Blindern Campus of the University of Oslo.

Feel free to contact us if you still have questions after reading through the following information.

More details and useful links can be found in the brochure "Welcome to the Institute of Theoretical Astrophysics" (pdf. file).

Getting settled in - practical information and necessities

Upon arrival, there are a few practical issues that needs to be taken care of in order to get you registered in the UiO system. You may even start this process before you arrive, so that you are good to go when you get here. Please read carefully through the following points:

Setting up your Profile page

?Profile pages at the University of Oslo (UiO) show what each employee is working on, and serve as digital business cards with contact information.

  • The communication advisor at ITA will create and set up your profile page. However, it is your responsibility edit and update it. This is done by clicking 'Manage documents' at the bottom of the page and signing in using your UiO credentials. You can find useful information on how to edit your profile page. If anything is missing, or you need help, contact the communication advisor.
  • It is recommended to have an employee profile picture for their profile. However, this is optional for the sake of privacy of individual employees. Read more on your rights. Upon arrival the communication advisor will arrange a photo shooting for you.

Internet access and email address

  • Your web account and email address at the University of Oslo [format: username@astro.uio.no] will be activated by the IT service group upon your arrival. You will have to go there in person and bring your ID. It may take a couple of days before the user becomes active. 
  • You can access your email in several ways, e.g. by using the following website: webmail@uio.no. Read more at "Email and calendar".

Office and door sign

Door pass and ID card

  • Office door pass is an employee card/guest card. For the first few days/weeks you may borrow a card from the institute. Ask Head of Office (Kristine Aall S. Knudsen), room 208.
  • If you receive salary from UiO, you can usually pick up your card at the SiO Centre (sio.no) one week after your contracts starts. You will need to provide your national identity number (for foreign employees, see below under 'For foreign employees') and bring your passport (or other official form of identification). Please remember to return the door pass when your stay at ITA has ended. 
  • If you receive salary elsewhere than UiO, please confer with Head of Office regarding ID card.

Computer and office equipment

You are encouraged to familiarise yourself with the following

Parking

Academic and social life at ITA

Stay up-to-date by frequently checking our front page which lists both news and events at the department. 

Regular seminars

  • Friday Colloquium, every Friday between 11.15-12.00 in Peisestua (room 304). 
  • Friday Mingle, organised every once in a while instead of the Friday Colloquium in which everyone have a mingling session in the main entrance hall with cake, coffee and a speed lecture. 
  • Rosseland lecture, annual lecture in honour of the founder of the institute, prof. Svein Rosseland, organised by ITA in collaboration with the UiO Science Library sometime during spring. 
  • The Cosmology and Extragalactic astronomy research group and the Rosseland Centre for Solar Physics, have regular lunch and coffee meetings. For more information, please contact your project leader. 

Sports and social activities

As employee at ITA, your active participation in social activities is expected and encouraged. This is important for everyone's well-being at the institute. Well-being is built by everyone following up and taking responsibility for the social environment in the workplace. Taking care of new employees, for example with a Buddy person, is particularly important here.

  • Running group: Regular running sessions are organised at ITA where everyone is welcome to join. For more information, please contact the organiser Luc Rouppe van der Voort.
  • Astro Stars is the name of the ITA football (soccer) team that play on a regular basis. For more info, please contact the organizer Eirik Gjerl?w. 
  • Code Coffee, a monthly ( ~ 1h max ) seminar/meeting for fellow programming / computational scientists in our institute.Join us to talk about the coding aspect of our work. The goals are to get to know each other and to learn new tricks. For more info, please contact Mikolaj Szydlarski.
  • AstroChoir, if you're just interested in singing in a choir with fellow astronomers, you're welcome. If you're a tenor, you're especially welcome. Need more info? Contact Stein Vidar Hagfors Haugan.
Everyone is free to initiate new activities and choose activities that they want to participate in. ITA financially supports activities that contribute to the social community at the institute. This can be events of the x-workshop type, cultural exchange, film or games night and the like. The events must be open to everyone at the institute, but may be limited to e.g. fellows or other similar groups. The financial support from the Institute can be given for the purchase of materials, tools, raw materials and the like.

If you have any good ideas or questions, contact the Office Manager.

Social media

  • To stay up to date, we recommend following ITA at Facebook, Instagram and Twitter through the user @astrofysikk. 
  • Feel free to share content with the #astrofysikk_uio and/or @astrofysikk. For more info, ask the Press and Communication Advisor for ITA (Martina D'Angelo).
  • All employees and master students at ITA and RoCS communicate on Mattermost, a fully featured chat service with public channels, private channels and instant messaging. As soon as you are a registered ITA employee, you are automatically invited. For troubles or questions contact the local IT department (Kjell Andresen).

Email lists

  • ITA has several useful email lists. When you get your internal email address you will be added to email lists that will alert you to general ITA information, seminar announcements and informal/social announcements (brukere@astro.uio.no). There are other email lists that you may want to join, we therefore highly recommend that you browse the email lists page. As a main rule it will be you @astro.uio.no-address that has been or will be added to the list. This has the advantage that you can manage all subscriptions yourself. 

For foreign employees

For general information, please read carefully the information for international staff.

Registering with Norwegian authorities

  • In order to get an ID card at UiO and for opening a bank account, you will need a national identity number (personnummer). This requires some processing time, and is often a limiting factor for getting settled. Therefor, we urge you to make appointments with the required authorities as early as possible. Please read carefully the Registration with Norwegian authorities pages in which you will find information on how to register at local authorities within set deadlines.  

Norwegian bank account

  • Opening a bank account should be one of your top priorities upon arrival in Norway, especially if your stay exceeds six months. Access to a Norwegian bank account will enable you to receive salary payments and handle your finances in a safe and efficient way.
  • Please read about the procedures on the UiO Bank account pages. 

Research and outreach

Publications

Important: It is of upmost importance to state your affiliation correctly in all of your publications. For ITA employees, this means including the following affiliation: Institute of theoretical astrophysics, University of Oslo. If you publish in a lesser-known peer-reviewed journal, please ensure that the journal is recognised at level 1 or 2 according to the Database for Statistics and Higher Education. Please inform the ITA administration if the journal is not recognised. 

Registering scientific activity

  • CRIStin is the national system used by UiO for registering academic activities and results. You must register all of your journal publications, books, book chapters, talks, posters, media contributions, etc., as the information entered into this system is used to generate reports on scientific activity, including information on collaboration (internally, nationally and internationally). If you have any difficulties using Cristin, you can contact the ITA administration. 

Publication fund for UiO researchers

Outreach 

Astronomy is appealing to the general public and we aim at being the main source for astronomy news related to research within our fields. We have good experience scientific outreach for various target groups, and well connected to media. Please contact our current Press and Communication Officer (Martina D'Angelo) for information on how to popularise your research. 

Please do not hesitate to contact the ITA administration if you have any question or encounter problems.