Chemist and mathematician appointed Wallenberg Academy Fellows
Helena Lundberg and Aron Wennman have been awarded grants from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation for groundbreaking basic research. The funding will enable them to further their research projects in green chemistry and mathematics at KTH Royal Institute of Technology.
The five-year grant, Wallenberg Academy Fellow, gives young researchers an opportunity to contribute innovative knowledge by tackling difficult and long-term research questions.
Helena Lundberg , associate professor at the Department of Chemistry, KTH, is developing methods to electrify chemistry and lay the foundation for a greener form of chemistry. The goal is to power chemical reactions in a way similar to how a battery works.
Controlling chemical processes through electrification creates new opportunities to tailor-made molecules. If she succeeds, the methods can be used to create chemical building blocks from, for example, biomass. These building blocks can be used to construct molecules and materials that modern society depends on in a more sustainable way.
Developing new tools
“This grant will be of great importance for my group in taking our research to the next level. With the support of the foundation, we can develop new tools to break and create chemical bonds in a controlled and more environmentally friendly way, and gain a detailed understanding that can lead to further improved processes,” says Lundberg.
Aron Wennman develops mathematical methods that can explain why certain special statistical patterns arise in widely different phenomena, such as electrically charged particles, random matrices and the energy levels of heavy atomic nuclei. An important question is how seemingly diverse systems governed by chance can follow a common order, something mathematicians call the principle of universality.
In his research, Aron Wennman studies so-called Coulomb gases, models in which charged particles move freely in a plane. His main goal is to understand the principle of universality and its limitations for these systems.
Challenging questions
The model also raises other central questions, such as the hypothesis that at low temperatures the particles crystallise and form a regular hexagonal pattern – like the cells in a beehive.
Wennman is an assistant professor at KU Leuven , Belgium. He has an academic background from KTH and, as a Wallenberg Academy Fellow, will work at the School of Engineering Science, KTH.
“The grant means a great deal to me. The long-term nature of the funding allows me to take greater risks in my research and set aside time to work on key but highly challenging issues. The WAF network also creates new opportunities to connect with researchers from completely different fields, which can be very inspiring and lead to new ideas,” he says.
Text: Christer Gummeson ( gummeson@kth.se )