Stockholm university

Quantum physics, the brain and sustainable materials focus for new Wallenberg Academy Fellows

What is needed to bridge the gap between quantum mechanics and Einstein's theory of gravity? How do experiences in the transition from childhood to adulthood affect the risk of anxiety? How can methods be developed to sustainably recycle lignin? These are some of the research topics for Stockholm University's Wallenberg Academy Fellows 2021.

 

Armita Golkar: How do the teen years shape the risk of anxiety?

The majority of all adults who are diagnosed with anxiety fulfilled the criteria for this diagnosis as teenagers.
Wallenberg Academy Fellow Armita Golkar will investigate how the neural systems that regulate our fears develop in the transition from childhood to adolescence and how teenagers' sensitivity to various social signals can be used to optimize their fear regulation.

Armita Golkar
Armita Golkar Photo: Gustav Mårtensson/Karolinska Institutet

The experiences we have in situations where we feel threatened impact our risk of developing anxiety. If we have learned how to regulate our emotions, we develop a resilience to mental illness. However, if we haven’t found a way to regulate our emotions, the risk of fear and anxiety-related illnesses increases.

Although researchers know this, they have little knowledge of how teenagers’ experiences shape the risk of developing anxiety. This is a period when the areas of the brain that regulate our emotions change greatly and is also a period when many people develop anxiety.

Using advanced brain imaging methods, Dr Armita Golkar, researcher at the Department of Psychology at Stockholm University, will study how the neural systems that regulate fear develop as children become teenagers. She will also investigate whether teenagers’ sensitivity to social signals can be utilized to optimize their fear regulation. The long-term objective is for teenagers to receive treatment that more effectively counteracts fear and anxiety-related disorders.

Read more about Armita Golkars research

 

Adam Slabon: Using lignin to create sustainable new materials

Lignin is a by-product of the process of turning wood into paper and is often combusted to produce heat, despite being a natural material with interesting chemical properties. Wallenberg Academy Fellow Adam Slabon is developing methods for utilizing lignin, transforming it into functional materials or biofuel.

Adam Slabon
Adam Slabon Photo: Ewelina Czermak-Slabon

Lignin functions as a type of binder in plants and trees which, along with cellulose fibers, gives them their strength. However, when wood is made into paper, for example, the lignin is a hindrance and must be removed from the paper pulp. It becomes a by-product, usually combusted to generate heat.  

However, from a chemical perspective, burning lignin is a waste of resources. Lignin, in itself sustainable, is built from small chemical entities that have desirable properties. Assistant Professor in Inorganic Chemistry Adam Slabon, at the Department of Materials and Environmental Chemistry at Stockholm University, is now developing methods to facilitate large-scale recycling of lignin.

An important first step is to break down the enormous lignin molecules into smaller units, which has been done until now using a method that requires fossil fuels. Instead, Adam Slabon is developing an electrochemical method that is more environment-friendly and better preserves important parts of the lignin structure. In a second stage, he will use sunlight to help create functional materials or a sustainable biofuel. The long-term objective is to better utilize one of our most abundant natural resources.

Adam Slabon is connected to SUCCeSS, Stockholm University Center for Circular and Sustainable Systems.

Read more about SUCCeSS

Read more about Adam Slabons research

 

Magdalena Zych: How does time flow in the quantum world?

Modern physics rests upon two fundamental theories: quantum mechanics and Einstein’s theory of gravitation. Many people have tried to unite the two, but failed. Wallenberg Academy Fellow Magdalena Zych will now take on this challenge and develop mathematical framework to describe a clock that is governed by both theories.

Magdalena Zych
Magdalena Zych Photo: Magdalena Zych

When physicists describe tiny elementary particles or the nanoworld, they use quantum mechanics. If they are going to describe the universe or gravity instead, they use Einstein’s theory of gravitation. For many physicists, the dream is to find a theory of everything that bridges the gap between the two theories, but this has not yet happened.

Dr Magdalena Zych at the University of Queensland, Australia, will now try to help unite the theories by developing mathematical tools that can describe the properties of an object, principally a clock, that is affected by both gravitation effects and quantum effects.  

Under the theory of gravitation, time passes more  slowly closer to a massive planet than out in space. According to quantum mechanics, all objects can be in something called a superposition of different states. This means that a particle can simultaneously have – and not have – a particular position.

One open question is whether time can exist in a superposition. If so, can it pass both slower and faster in space than on Earth? This is the type of question that Magdalena Zych will try to answer, and hopefully contribute to finding a theory that can ultimately describe all physics.  

As a Wallenberg Academy Fellow, Magdalena Zych will work at the Department of Physics at Stockholm University.

Read more about the Department of Physics

Read more about Magdalena Zych's research

 

Laura Donnay: Will further develop mathematics for describing black holes

Quantum mechanics collides head-on with Einstein’s theory of gravitation in the description of black holes. To better understand the properties of black holes, researchers have produced a new mathematical tool, the holographic correspondence, which Wallenberg Academy Fellow Laura Donnay will now further develop.

Laura Donnay
Laura Donnay Photo: Luiza Puiu

Black holes compel physicists to reconsider the fundamental laws of nature as their understanding requires both Einstein’s theory of gravity and quantum physics – but these two theories collide. For example, Stephen Hawking showed that black holes evaporate, and thus that the information they contained seems to be forever lost, a phenomenon which breaks the laws of quantum mechanics.

In their work to try to unify these two fundamental theories of physics, and so better describe black holes, physicists have developed a new form of mathematical tool called the holographic correspondence. It has led to spectacular progress in the understanding of the strange properties of black holes.  

Dr Laura Donnay, Marie Skłodowska-Curie Fellow at TU Wien, will now develop a new holographic correspondence which is suitable to describe realistic kinds of spacetime and observable phenomena.  She will also investigate a newly discovered and intriguing infinite set of symmetries that appear close to the horizon of a black hole.


As a Wallenberg Academy Fellow, Laura Donnay will work at NORDITA, Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics at Stockholm University.

Read more about NORDITA

Read more about Laura Donnays research

 

Two extended grants and a new Wallenberg Scholar

In addition to the new grants, two Wallenberg Academy Fellows have been awarded extended grants. Ilona Riipinen is promoted to Wallenberg Scholar.

  • Abraham Mendoza

Abraham Mendoza has been granted an extended grant of five years

Read more about Abraham Mendoza's research

  • Ilona Riipinen

Ilona Riipinen has been granted an extended grant of five years, and promoted to Wallenberg Scholar

Read more about Ilona Riipinen's research

 

Facts - Wallenberg Academy Fellows

  • The five-year grants are for research in the natural sciences, medicine, technology, humanities and social sciences, and there is huge variation among the issues being examined. Many of the researchers are recruited from other countries to build up their research in Sweden.
  • Funding amounts to 5 to 15 million Swedish kronor per researcher for five years, depending on the subject area. After the end of the first period, the researchers may apply for funding for an additional five years.
  • The program initiated by the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation has been established in partnership with the royal academies and 16 Swedish universities. Since the program started in 2012, the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation has allocated a total of almost SEK 2.5 billion to the investment.

Read more about the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation

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