This year’s Wallenberg Academy Fellows

Sweden’s largest private investment in young researchers is continuing, with the announcement of 29 new Wallenberg Academy Fellows. The programme is financed by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation in order to provide young researchers with the opportunity to take on difficult, long-term research questions.

The research programme supports some of Sweden’s, and the world’s, most promising researchers in medicine, natural sciences, engineering sciences, humanities and social science.

This year’s Academy Fellows conduct research in a range of forward-looking areas. One example is “DNA origami” in which genetic code is used to help govern the folding of DNA molecules. Another deals with the creation of sensors embedded in clothes in order to monitor health.

“It is always just as interesting and fascinating to discover the young researcher’s plans after the extensive peer review process is presented. This investment is now in its third year and now 92 Fellows have been appointed,” says Peter Wallenberg Jr, vice-chairman of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

All the Wallenberg Academy Fellows participate in a mentoring programme that aims to strengthen their academic leadership and to provide them with the knowledge and experience necessary to improve the commercialisation of their research results. The programme’s international element also contributes to the increased internationalisation of the Swedish research environment, thus fulfilling several of the criteria that are in demand to increase the competitiveness of Swedish research.

Wallenberg Academy Fellows 2014

(In cases where the nominating university differs from the researcher’s current university, the nominating university is named in parentheses).

Humanities

Associate Professor Patricia Mindus, Uppsala University
Associate Professor Mikael Roll, Lund University
Associate Professor Joakim Sandberg, University of Gothenburg

Medicine

Dr Yenan Bryceson, Karolinska Institutet
Dr Pekka Katajisto, University of Helsinki (Karolinska Institutet)
Dr Edmund Loh, University of Oxford (Karolinska Institutet)
Dr Jenny Mjösberg, Karolinska Institutet (Linköping University)
Dr Robert Månsson, Karolinska Institutet
Dr Peder Olofsson, Feinstein Institute for Medical Research (Karolinska Institutet)
Dr Eduardo Villablanca, Broad Institute (Karolinska Institutet)

Natural Sciences

Associate Professor Alexandre Antonelli, University of Gothenburg
Associate Professor Annica Black-Schaffer, Uppsala University
Dr Sebastian Deindl, Harvard University (Uppsala University)
Dr Matthew Hayes, Stockholm University
Associate Professor Simone Immler, Uppsala University
Dr Jonas Larson, Stockholm University
Dr Olle Lundh, Lund University
Dr Johan Nilsson, University of Gothenburg
Associate Professor Fredrik Viklund, Uppsala University (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)

Social Science

Associate Professor Kerstin Enflo, Lund University
Associate Professor Lisa Hultman, Uppsala University
Associate Professor Jessica Körning Ljungberg, Umeå University
Dr Andreas Olsson, Karolinska Institutet
Associate Professor Johanna Wallenius, Stockholm School of Economics

Engineering Sciences

Dr Paul Erhart, Chalmers University of Technology
Associate Professor Björn Högberg, Karolinska Institutet
Associate Professor Laura Kovács, Chalmers University of Technology
Associate Professor Kasper Moth-Poulsen, Chalmers University of Technology
Associate Professor Christian Müller, Chalmers University of Technology

Read more about the research conducted by the new Wallenberg Academy Fellows at the foundation’s website.

Five years’ financing may become ten

The Wallenberg Academy Fellows programme has been initiated in close cooperation with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, the Royal Swedish Academy of Agriculture and Forestry, the Royal Swedish Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities and the Swedish Academy.

The grant amounts to a total of SEK 5–9 million per researcher over five years, depending on their field. At the end of the first period the researchers will have the opportunity to apply for a further five years of financing.

“This is the most important programme we have in Sweden for encouraging the growth of the next generation of researchers. It is therefore particularly important that the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences contributes its expertise to this project,” says Staffan Normark, Permanent Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Within the programme’s framework, the academies are responsible for appointing evaluation groups and for the five-year mentoring programme.

“The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation’s very ambitious and absolutely unique scholarship programme provides amazing opportunities for prominent young researchers to be able to finance their research for a long period of time. The Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences is proud to be able to contribute to the programme,” says the Managing Director of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, Björn O. Nilsson.

Background

The programme was established by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation in close cooperation with five royal academies and 16 Swedish universities. The universities nominate researchers for the programme, the academies evaluate the candidates and present the most promising researchers to the Wallenberg Foundation, which then makes the final selection. After this, the universities take long-term responsibility for the selected researchers’ activities.

Wallenberg Academy Fellows is the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation’s largest ever investment. The programme is intended to cover investments in up to 125 young researchers in the period 2012 to 2016 – with potential total funding worth SEK 1.2 billion.

This year marks the 275th anniversary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. The Academy was founded in 1739 and is an independent organization whose overall objective is to promote the sciences and strengthen their influence in society. The Academy takes special responsibility for the natural sciences and mathematics, but endeavours to promote the exchange of ideas between various disciplines.