Two Uppsala researchers named Wallenberg Scholars

er Ahlberg, a professor of evolutionary organism biology, is extra happy about the freedom he will have in using the funding.

“It’s absolutely fantastic. We are in the process of developing our research on the borderline between evolutionary biology and developmental biology, and in this phase it’s still hard to know exactly what this will lead to. That makes this award extra timely,” he says.

The research team is studying how patterning at the genetic level is related to anatomical structures in vertebrates.

“We’ve known for a long time that changes on the genetic level lead to changes in anatomy, but research in the field has been hampered by technological difficulties. Recently the technology has made great advances, making it possible to actually get somewhere,” explains Per Ahlberg.

Olle Eriksson is a professor of theoretical physics. His research is about identifying and developing new materials for various applications in information technology, for example. One ultimate goal is to be able to create faster computers that can read and store information considerably more rapidly than today, both on the computer’s hard drive and in the form of magnetic memory.

Earlier this spring Olle Eriksson also received a so-called Senior Grant from the European Research Council amounting to SEK 20 million over five years. 

Wallenberg Scholars is a program designed to support and stimulate some of the most successful researchers at Swedish universities. The idea is for the researchers selected to be able to set their sights higher, with less of a burden of applying for external research funding, in order to make an even greater international impact with their research and to have an opportunity to commit to bolder and more long-term projects.