SURFING, wombats and Christmas in the sun are three things firmly planted on Ingeborg Nilsson’s to-do list for the next six months.
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Dr Nilsson is a visiting scholar from Umea University in Sweden in Australia to research a scientific paper focused on senior citizens’ health promotion and occupation.
So her visit certainly won’t be limited to fun in the Australian sun.
Dr Nilsson’s connection to Australia started with an email to the director of the Australasian Occupational Science Centre PHD Alison Wicks at the University of Wollongong Shoalhaven Campus.
Being the only occupational scientist at the UOW and one of the few in the country, Dr Wicks does a lot of her work via the internet.
“For me having Ingeborg here is heaven, it’s great to have a colleague to talk with and bounce ideas off face-to-face,” she said.
“It is wonderful to have a community of scholars around the world but there is real value in working face-to-face and, thankfully, universities acknowledge that and offer scholarships,” she said.
The first time the two met was when Dr Wicks was presenting a paper in Chile about the Berry Men’s Shed.
Ms Nilsson said after seeing how similar Dr Wicks’ work was to her own she decided to come to Australia and collaborate with Dr Wicks on her current project.
“Health promotion, interventions and the role of occupation in older people’s lives has been my main research interest in recent years,” she said.
“My main purpose with my visit and stay at University of Wollongong and the Australasia Occupational Science Centre is to exchange experiences from the work and research in older people, health promotion and occupation,” she said.
“My intention is to write a scientific paper together with Dr Wicks focusing our shared knowledge in this area.
“I would like to expand my research network, be influenced and inspired by others in the field and perhaps also find topics for shared future projects,” she said.
