Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation boosts important research

Press release
4 April 2018

The rapid developments now occurring in automation and digitalization, and a large proportion of the progress being made in research, build upon enormous amounts of data. Advanced mathematics is required to be able to use all the information this provides. The fourteen mathematicians who will receive 2018’s grants from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation’s comprehensive investment in mathematics are presented below.

“Mathematics has always been key to societal development, but due to the incredible amounts of data that can now be produced, it is being focused on in an entirely new way. Existing mathematics is not adequate for benefitting from all the information we obtain, so its development has become increasingly important. This will allow us a greater understanding of the links between genetics and diseases and climate change, for example,” says Peter Wallenberg Jr, chairman of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation.

The Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation is putting 340 million Swedish krona into this newly expanded investment to support Swedish mathematics research. Between 2014 and 2023, mathematicians in Sweden are given the opportunity to conduct research abroad and to recruit visiting researchers to Sweden. The program is run in cooperation with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which evaluates all the nominated candidates.

“The aim of the program is that Sweden will regain an internationally leading position in the field. This is an incredibly important investment that the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences is proud to be part of,” says Göran K. Hansson, Secretary General, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

The funding does not target a particular area of mathematics but supports basic research.

This year’s candidates work with important research questions in mathematics, relating to subjects such as data storage, nanotechnology and knowledge of the universe and our laws of physics.

Grants 2018:

Three established researchers from outside Sweden recruited as visiting professors at Swedish universities (in parentheses)

  • Professor Sergey N. Naboko, St Petersburg State University, Russia (Stockholm University)
  • Professor Gregory G. Smith, Queen’s University, Canada (KTH Royal Institute of Technology)
  • Professor Viviane Baladi, Institut de Mathématiques de Jussieu, CNRS, France (Lund University)

Six researchers receive grants to recruit a foreign researcher for a postdoctoral position in Sweden:

  • Professor Hans Ringström, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
  • Professor Anna-Karin Tornberg, KTH Royal Institute of Technology
  • Associate Professor Martin Raum, Chalmers University of Technology and the University of Gothenburg
  • Professor Sandra Pott, Lund University
  • Associate Professor Alexander Berglund, Stockholm University
  • Associate Professor Jonas Bergström, Stockholm University

Five researchers receive postdoctoral positions at foreign universities and funding for two years after their return to Sweden:

  • PhD Davit Karagulyan, KTH Royal Institute of Technology (University of Maryland, USA)
  • Doctoral student Aron Wennman, KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Tel Aviv University, Israel)
  • Doctoral student Gleb Nenashev, Stockholm University (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA)
  • Doctoral student Magnus Carlson, KTH Royal Institute of Technology (Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel)
  • Doctoral student Samuel Edwards, Uppsala University (Yale University, USA)

 

Read more about the researchers and projects 

About the program:
For the period 2014–2023, the program provides SEK 340 million for Swedish postdocs abroad, as well as the international recruitment of foreign postdocs and visiting professors to Swedish institutions. There is also funding of almost SEK 60 million for the Academy of Sciences’ Institut Mittag-Leffler, one of the world’s top ten mathematics institutions. The program is run in cooperation with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, which evaluates all the nominated candidates.

Contact:
Peter Wallenberg Jr, Chairman, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
+46 (0)8 545 017 80
[email protected]

Göran K. Hansson, Secretary General, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
+46 (0)8 673 9500
[email protected]

Göran Sandberg, Executive Director, Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation
+46 (0)8 545 017 80
[email protected]

Jessica Balksjö Nannini, Press Officer, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences
+46 (0)70 673 96 50
[email protected]