Wallenberg Academy Fellows, the career programme for young researchers launched by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation in 2012, provides long-term funding for young, promising Swedish and foreign researchers from all academic fields. Today, thirty-three new researchers are appointed to the programme.
Wallenberg Academy Fellows is the single largest support programme for young researchers in Sweden. Besides providing the most prominent, young researchers long-term funding, thus enabling them to concentrate on their research, the programme contributes to a greater internationalisation of the Swedish research community.
– All in all, we plan to fund up to 125 Fellows. Wallenberg Academy Fellows, the Wallenberg Foundation’s largest support programme to date, is a long-term initiative to support young researchers from Sweden and abroad. It is a true pleasure to announce the second batch of promising, young researchers, says Peter Wallenberg Jr., Vice-chairman of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
Wallenberg Academy Fellows 2013:
(Nominating university within brackets)
Engineering sciences
Associate Professor Martin Andersson, Chalmers University of Technology (Chalmers University of Technology); Associate Professor My Hedhammar, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (KTH Royal Institute of Technology); Associate Professor Albert Mihranyan, Uppsala University (Luleå University of Technology); Associate Professor Panagiotis Papadimitratos, KTH Royal Institute of Technology (KTH Royal Institute of Technology); Associate Professor Philipp Schlatter, KTH Royal Institute of Technology (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)
Humanities
Dr. Axel Englund, Södertörn University (Stockholm University); Dr. Angus Graham, University College London (Uppsala University); Associate Professor Amanda Lagerkvist, Södertörn University (Stockholm University)
Medicine
Dr. Christian Göritz, Karolinska Institutet (Karolinska Institutet); Dr. Linda Holmfeldt, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (Uppsala University); Professor Erik Ingelsson, Uppsala University (Uppsala University); Dr. Francois Lallemend, Karolinska Institutet (Karolinska Institutet); Dr. Ola Larsson, Karolinska Institutet (Karolinska Institutet); Dr. Sjoerd Wanrooij, Washington University School of Medicine (Umeå University); Dr. Joan Yuan, National Institutes of Health (Lund University); Professor Henrik Zetterberg, University of Gothenburg (University of Gothenburg)
Natural Sciences
Dr. Petter Brändén, KTH Royal Institute of Technology (KTH Royal Institute of Technology); Dr. Charlie Cornwallis, Lund University (Lund University); Dr. Rachel A. Foster, Max Planck Institute for Marine Microbiology, (Stockholm University); Dr. Christian Hedberg, Max Planck Institute for Molecular Physiology (Umeå University); Associate Professor Mattias Jakobsson, Uppsala University (Uppsala University); Dr. Markus Janson, Princeton University (Stockholm University); Dr. Henrik Johansson, CERN (Chalmers University of Technology); Associate Professor Lynn Kamerlin, Uppsala University (Uppsala University); Associate Professor Jonatan Klaminder, Umeå University (Umeå University); Dr. Martin Ott, Stockholm University (Stockholm University); Professor Janine Splettstößer, RWTH Aachen University (Chalmers University of Technology); Dr. Sara Strandberg, Stockholm University (Stockholm University); Dr. Sebastian Westenhoff, University of Gothenburg (University of Gothenburg)
Social Science
Dr. Anna Dreber Almenberg, Stockholm School of Economics (Stockholm School of Economics); Professor Staffan I. Lindberg, University of Gothenburg, (University of Gothenburg); Associate Professor Ann E. Towns, University West (University of Gothenburg); Professor Joakim Westerlund, Lund University (Lund University)
Wallenberg Academy Fellows are recruited in a process that promotes competition and researcher mobility. It constitutes a unique collaboration between universities, academies and the funding body. The initiative also includes a mentorship programme for appointed Fellows.
– Sweden is falling behind in scientific competitiveness and decisive measures are required to make sure that the country remains at the scientific cutting edge. If the country’s most prominent, young researchers are given the possibility to develop into successful, top scientists, Sweden may well remain a scientific nation in the future, says Staffan Normark, Permanent secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Five royal academies
Five of the Swedish royal academies have assumed the responsibility of appointing selection committees. In addition, they collectively manage a five year mentorship programme that aims to foster the Fellows’ scientific leadership and provide knowledge and experience to increase their abilities to implement research results outside the world of academia.
– Wallenberg Academy Fellows is a fantastic initiative by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation to strengthen Swedish research in the long-term. The Fellows appointed this year prove that regrowth in the Swedish scientific community is strong. Here at IVA, we are proud of being able to contribute through the participation of our members in the selection process as well as the mentorship programme offered in collaboration with our sister academies within the framework of the WAF initiative, says Professor Björn O. Nilsson, President of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA).
Subject areas vary greatly and feature, for instance, research about the cell’s power house, the mitochondrion, studies of the evolutionary history of modern man and the hunt for Earth-like planets.
An international approach
Of the 120 nominated researchers, thirty-six were active at educational institutions abroad, and nine of the thirty-three researchers that are now being offered the Wallenberg Academy Fellowship come from universities outside Sweden.
– Research is international by its very nature. It is important to promote the exchange of ideas and methods, and the networks created are central to further progress. Regardless of whether Swedish researchers return or foreign researchers arrive, they increase the level of internationalisation of Swedish research, says Göran Sandberg, Executive member of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.
Each appointment as Wallenberg Academy Fellow comes with a grant of SEK 5-9 million spread over five years. After that period, Fellows are entitled to apply for another five years of funding.
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, founded in 1739, 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.
Background
The programme was founded by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation in close cooperation with five royal academies and sixteen universities. The universities nominate researchers to the programme; the academies evaluate the candidates and present a shortlist of the most promising researchers to the Wallenberg Foundation, which makes the final selection. The universities assume the long-term responsibility for the selected researchers’ work.
Wallenberg Academy Fellows is the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation’s largest initiative ever. The aim of the programme is to support up to 125 young researchers between 2012 and 2016 with a potential total of SEK 1.2 billion.