The IT Faculty Pedagogical Prize posthumously awarded to Lars Pareto
In June this year a severe and unexpected loss struck the Software Engineering division when Lars Pareto – an influential member of the group for a long time – suddenly passed away. A couple of weeks earlier it was decided that Lars Pareto was to be awarded the the IT Faculty Pedagogical Prize for 2013. During the university's conferment ceremony on October 25, the prize was posthumously awarded to Lars Pareto.
Lars Pareto was an energetic and inspirational teacher and a successful researcher, who with his passion for education and project-based pedagogy became very popular among his students. He was awarded the the IT Faculty Pedagogical Prize 2013 in honor of his development of the educational programmes, in terms of pedagogy as well as industrial cooperation, and his ability to maintain a strong influx of students into the programmes. Lars Pareto was informed about the award in May and was able to appreciate this before he suddenly suffered from illness.
The IT Faculty Pedagogical Prize was awarded during the University of Gothenburg's conferment ceremony on October 25 and was, in Lars Pareto’s absence, accepted by the Head of the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, Jan Jonsson. The prize money will, according to Lars Pareto's own guidelines, be used for the educational projects that have become hallmark for the bachelor and master programmes in software engineering, as well as travel support for master students with theses published at international conferences.
The loss of Lars Pareto in early summer 2013 was a hard blow for all who worked with him, both in academia and industry, and for all his students - but his work as a highly productive researcher and innovative educator lives on. Lars Pareto was 47 years.
Text: Jan Jonsson/Catharina Jerkbrant