18 February 2020

The Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research has selected 20 young researchers as Future Research Leaders. Five of them are active at Linköping University. Each receives SEK 12 million in a five-year period and the opportunity to participate in a leadership programme.

A red rose is laying down on a work bench. In the blurry background you can se a person wearing a lab coat and blue rubber gloves.
Eleni Stavrinidou, is one of the young LiU researchers who have been selected as Future Research Leader. Her research concerns electronic plants.  Photographer: Thor Balkhed

Five young researchers at Linköping University have been selected from 227 applicants as Future Research Leaders:

Emil Björnson, associate professor in the Division of Communication Systems, for research into intelligent wireless networks with innovative antenna topology.

Feng Gao, senior lecturer in the Division of Biomolecular and Organic Electronics, for research into high-efficiency fullerene-free organic solar cells.

Eric Glowacki, senior lecturer in the Laboratory of Organic Electronics, for research into optoelectronic medicine and how nerve cells can be controlled using light.

Eleni Stavrinidou, research fellow in the Laboratory of Organic Electronics, for research into bioelectronic components for plants.

Klas Tybrandt, senior lecturer in the Laboratory of Organic Electronics, for research into soft self-inserting neural interfaces.

Four of the five researchers work in the field of organic electronics, three of them in the Laboratory of Organic Electronics, Campus Norrköping. Of the 20 successful applications, 10 were from women and 10 from men.

“I’m very happy to see the renewal within Swedish research that the many applicants represent. It’s just as gratifying that we can now award grants to equal numbers of women and men, something that mirrors a future academic world with greater equality”, says Lars Hultman, CEO of the Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research,

The scientific quality of the applications has been assessed by external experts, and the applicants have been interviewed to ensure that they possess leadership skills.

“The extensive training in leadership that the foundation offers will ensure that the Future Research Leaders programme is a true high-quality programme in the career development of young researchers”, says Lars Hultman.

Translated by George Farrants


Future research leaders 2020

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