June 15–18, WWSC will host the center’s first international conference, exploring the research front of new sustainable materials from wood. Over four days, leading researchers from around the world will gather in Stockholm, Sweden, to discuss the latest advancements in using wood as a sustainable resource for innovative materials.
Congratulations to the WWSC members Merima Hasani, Chalmers, Lauren McKee, KTH, and Mika Sipponen, Stockholm University, who recently got promoted!
Gabriella Mastantuoni has been awarded the 2024 prize from the International Academy of Wood Science (IAWS) for her doctoral thesis ‘Engineering of lignin in wood
Professor Minna Hakkarainen, KTH, and co-applicants receive 24 MSEK for the project ”From atomistic to macroscopic understanding: unravelling lignin’s untapped potential as earth’s most abundant natural phenolic compound” from Knut and Alice Wallenberg’s foundation.
Tobias Bensefelt, KTH, has been awarded ERC Starting Grants 2024 for a project on developing adaptive separation techniques to improve the production of bio-based pharmaceuticals.
WWSC project leader Johan Larsbrink has been awarded 5-year funding for the investigation of microbial and enzymatic valorization of tree bark. While bark is a well-known material, the knowledge of how it is broken down in nature is poorly understood today.
Professor Eleni Stavrinidou at LiU received the Science, She Says! Award, an international prize established to recognize an outstanding junior female scientist who has remarkably contributed to the advancement of science and technology.
Materials from Wallenberg Wood Science Center are part of the Tekniska museet’s new exhibition the Forest, which opened May 18. “We have invited WWSC to showcase cutting-edge research to spark interest and elevate the discussion about the materials of the future”, says Jenny Attemark, curator and project manager at the museum.
Feng Gao, Professor at Linköping University and WWSC member, is appointed as a new Wallenberg Scholar. The Wallenberg Scholar program focuses on Sweden’s leading senior researchers and gives the researchers long term funding to carry out world-class research.
Lars Wågberg, Professor at KTH, receives the prestigious Anselme Payen Award 2024, awarded by the American Chemical Society’s Cellulose and Renewable Materials (CELL) Division.
The “33-listan” is published by Ny Teknik, a Swedish language science and engineering magazine. Each year they highlight 33 promising innovation-focussed start-up companies, which must be based in Sweden and have been founded less than seven years ago. The 2023 list showed a big emphasis on forest-related companies in the Swedish start-up scene.
Chalmers University of Technology and WWSC have recruited two new Assistant Professors, Amparo Jimenez Quero and Liyang Liu, to further develop and broaden the scientific competence within the center.
WWSC is a joint research center between KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Chalmers University of Technology and Linköping University. The base is a donation from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation. The Swedish industry is supporting WWSC via the platform Treesearch.
