2025-04-30: Gustaf Dalén, inventor of the AGA lighthouse and so far Chalmers’ only Nobel laureate, had an extraordinary belief in the future. This belief was not shaken by economic depression or the loss of his sight – a role model to remember in uncertain times, as spring reminds us of all that lies ahead.
Spring is not only a wonderful season; it can also be a symbolic reminder to look ahead and to feel joy and hope, especially in times of turbulence and uncertainty. This is something I like to remind the Chalmers students when I deliver a short speech at the donning of the caps ceremony. Many of them also contribute tangibly to one of Gothenburg’s most reliable signs of spring: the cortège – a joyful tradition for Walpurgis Night celebrants in Gothenburg since 1909.
A great role model, thanks to his forward-looking vision, is the engineer, inventor and entrepreneur Gustaf Dalén – the only Chalmers alumnus to have received the Nobel Prize to date.
Met Gustaf de Laval
This industrious and technically creative farmer’s son from Skräddaregården in Stenstorp, Västergötland, ran the family farm for a few years but later sold it and enrolled at Chalmers Technical Institute in 1892. This came after he had built a fat content tester for milk and travelled to Stockholm to discuss it with Gustaf de Laval, arguably Sweden’s most celebrated inventor of the time. Dalén graduated from Chalmers in 1896 and later studied for a period in Zurich.
As an engineer and, after just a few years, also CEO of AGA – Aktiebolaget Gasaccumulator – he developed a system of technical solutions that greatly improved maritime safety around the world: the AGA lighthouse. This invention made it possible to install fully automatic lighthouses, powered by acetylene gas and regulated by sunlight, that required refuelling only once a year.
It is difficult to fully grasp the magnitude of this invention over a century later. But the shift from manned operation to only occasional maintenance meant an extraordinary efficiency improvement, and it enabled lighthouses to be placed in locations previously thought impossible.
Lighthouses along the Panama Canal
The AGA lighthouse began spreading globally in 1909 – the same year Dalén became CEO. By 1912, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for this invention. That same year, AGA secured contracts for the lighthouses along the Panama Canal, which was under construction at the time.
At that point, he had recently lost his sight in both eyes in an experiment involving acetylene gas cylinders. Cynics have claimed that the Nobel Prize was meant as a consolation for this – since Dalén’s brilliance was more about innovation than fundamental physical research. However, it is hard to dispute that his achievements truly “have conferred the greatest benefit to mankind,” as Nobel wrote in his will.
The loss of his vision never hindered his work – he remained CEO of AGA until his death in 1937. Sometimes business was thriving, and sometimes less so. In the 1920s, he lost his fortune during a downturn at AGA, and although the company recovered, the Kreuger crash of the 1930s brought further challenges.
Yet Gustaf Dalén pressed on undeterred. He even had badges made reading “Be an optimist”, which he would pin to the lapels of those he thought needed cheering up.
This outlook on life personifies William Chalmers’ motto – avancez – to focus on possible solutions and always keep one’s gaze fixed ahead.
As a spring greeting from Chalmers, I would therefore like to say: be an optimist – and avancez!
Martin Nilsson Jacobi, President and CEO of Chalmers University of Technology
Under the headline "President’s perspective" the President and CEO for Chalmers University of Technology, shares his reflections on current topics that concern education, research and utilisation.