Gustaf Hendeby defended his doctoral thesis in 2008, went to Germany as a postdoctoral fellow and came back to Sweden to work at the Swedish Defence Research Agency, FOI. For a few years he was an adjunct researcher, i.e. employed at both FOI and LiU, before becoming a full-time LiU employee in 2016.
“It was good being an adjunct researcher. I got to work with knowledge transfer in practice and with problems that are really relevant. Mobility programmes are good, as a researcher you get to see how your results work in real life,” says Gustaf Hendeby.
He conducts research in signal processing and sensor fusion. Translated into everyday situations, this could involve providing situational awareness for a self-driving car or dealing with GPS interference, solutions that can of course also have military applications. In the past, military technology was developed first and could then have civilian applications. Now the situation is reversed.
“Experiences from the war in Ukraine shows that it’s often civilian technology that’s adapted, applied and used. And this works very well, just look at the drones,” says Gustaf Hendeby.
Close collaboration
The defence company Saab was an important factor in LiU’s creation and there are extensive collaborations with FOI, companies such as Sectra, world leader in cybersecurity, and actors such as the National Forensic Centre and the Swedish Armed Forces’ Cyber Defence units, which are wholly or partly engaged in innovations in the area of defence. The LEAD business incubator has also recently been appointed Sweden’s candidate for NATO’s DIANA Accelerator Programme.
“We believe that there is a golden opportunity to use all the expertise and knowledge available at Linköping University to contribute with innovations that benefit both our security and a stronger defence. The investments in civilian and military defence must be given higher priority, and the pace must be accelerated,” says Vice-Chancellor Jan-Ingvar Jönsson.
A university can probably find research areas to strengthen total defence. But how will individual researchers react to developments? The answer is individual, but is likely to be affected by the global security situation.
“I fully understand that this may pose an ethical dilemma for the individual researcher, but the way I see it, I’m doing this for a good purpose, for a more secure society,” says Gustaf Hendeby.
