Five promising Chalmers researchers will this year receive the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation’s five-year basic research grants. These grants give early-career researchers the opportunity to contribute new, ground-breaking knowledge by tackling difficult, long-term research questions.
“We are very proud to have succeeded in recruiting these talents to Chalmers, and delighted that, through the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, they are being given excellent opportunities to carry out their exciting research plans here with us. We look forward to the results of their research and to following their development as independent research leaders,” says Anders Palmqvist, Vice President for Research and Sustainable Development at Chalmers.
Long term, attractive program
“The program is long-term and very attractive. One measure of this is that very few researchers have left the program to pursue a career outside Sweden. The aim was precisely to retain talented Swedish researchers in Sweden and to attract foreign talent, as well as allowing them the space they need to tackle difficult research questions in the long term,” says Peter Wallenberg Jr, chair, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
In total, 288 researchers have been appointed Wallenberg Academy Fellows since 2012. All were younger than 40 when the grant was awarded and their applications all underwent rigorous evaluation by a large number of international evaluators. Including this year’s round, so far Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation has allocated just over SEK 3.2 billion to the program. The funding covers research in natural sciences, medicine, engineering and technology, humanities, and social sciences. It was established in 2012, in partnership with the royal academies and 16 Swedish universities.
An additional five years of funding may be applied for after the end of the first period.
Ilaria Torre, Computer Science and Engineering
Robots have great potential to make society more efficient and to become a valuable support for, for example, teachers or healthcare professionals. Ilaria Torre is developing a universal communication system that makes robots’ speech, movements, sounds and lights clear and consistent. The system will be adaptable to different types of robots, settings and users, including people with disabilities.
Shantanu Mishra, Physics
Magnetism is inherently governed by quantum mechanics, but the underlying theory is notoriously complex, especially for many-body systems. This project aims to unravel how magnetism emerges in materials, by developing an experimental quantum simulator.
Alexandra Stubelius, Life Sciences
Research into the immune system has made major advances in recent years. One remaining challenge is to interpret how immune cells communicate through glycans – chains of sugar molecules on the surfaces of cells and proteins. Greater understanding of the role of glycans could pave the way for improved cancer immunotherapies, better treatments for autoimmune diseases, and new approaches to reducing the risk of organ rejection after transplantation.
Simon Leo Myerson, Mathematical Sciences
Most mathematical models are based on simplifications of reality. Understanding when and why these simplifications work is important if they are to be reliable. This project aims to validate a simplified mathematical model that is used to describe waves, such as ocean waves in climate models.
Nils Johan Engelsen, Microtechnology and Nanoscience
A nanoscale platform a hundred times thinner than a strand of hair, where atoms and light can interact at the quantum level will be constructed in the project. The resulting quantum phenomena could be used to create devices such as ultra-stable lasers, high-precision atomic clocks, quantum computers, and ultra-sensitive sensors.