This year’s Björkén Prize to energy researchers

The Björkén Prize is one of Uppsala University’s major science prizes for outstanding research. It was first awarded in 1902.

Auli Niemi is Professor of Groundwater Modelling at Uppsala University. She is one of the leading experts in Europe on the geological storage of carbon dioxide and one of the University’s most successful researchers working within the EU Seventh Framework Programme. She has coordinated the important Mustang Programme and is an active participant in a large number of other major EU projects. Auli Niemi’s research includes the development of guidelines, methods and tools needed to recognise sites for long-term storage of carbon dioxide in the sea floor. These spring from a fundamental scientific understanding of the underlying processes. Auli Niemi participates actively in energy-related discussions at European level and sits as an expert on a number of national and international committees within the field.

Anders Hagfeldt is Professor of Physical Chemistry and one of the world’s leading experts on solar cells, especially so-called Grätzel cells. These are made of nanostructured oxides which are activated by dye molecules. Hagfeldt has put together a world leading group in Uppsala who have achieved a considerable increase in the power produced by these solar cells. He has been included in the world’s hundred most quoted materials scientists for the last decade and in 2015 he was among the one percent most quoted chemistry researchers. Since 2014, Anders Hagfeldt has served as a professor at École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne in Switzerland.

The prize will be awarded at the Winter Conferment Ceremony in January 2017.

Read more about the Björkén Prize