Eva Olsson (scientist)

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Eva Olsson
Eva Olsson.JPG
Olsson in 2012
Born (1960-10-12) 12 October 1960 (age 62)
Alma mater Chalmers University of Technology
Scientific career
Institutions Uppsala University
Chalmers University of Technology
IBM
Thesis Interfacial microstructure in ZnO varistor materials  (1988)
Website Eva Olsson Group

Eva Olsson (born 12 October 1960) is a Swedish physicist who is a professor at Chalmers University of Technology. She is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and part of the selection committee for the Nobel Prize in Physics.

Contents

Early life and education

Olsson was an undergraduate student in Gothenburg at the Chalmers University of Technology, where she specialised in engineering physics. She worked on mirror furnaces for her undergraduate diploma. [1] After graduating, she remained at Chalmers and started a doctoral research project studying the interfacial structures of zinc oxide varistor materials. [1] She moved to the United States as a researcher with David R. Clarke at IBM. She returned to the Chalmers University of Technology in 1991, where she was eventually awarded her docent degree. [2]

Research and career

Olsson was appointed associate professor at Chalmers in 1996. She was appointed professor at Uppsala University a year later, where she worked for four years before returning to Chalmers as a full professor. [3] At Chalmers, Olsson has served as Director of Material Analysis, Head of Microscopy and Head of Applied Physics.[ citation needed ]

Olsson develops novel characterisation techniques for materials. [1] She is mainly interested in materials for emerging technologies, including catalysis, photovoltaic and quantum devices. [4] In particular, Olsson works with electron microscopy. [4] [5] In 2013, Olsson was awarded 33 million  SEK from the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, with which she developed soft microscopy. [6] Soft microscopy involves developing ways to use electron microscopes to study soft and semi-hard materials, creating new avenues for advances in material science. [7] [8]

When characterising gold using an electron microscope at the highest level of magnification, it was discovered that they could force gold to melt at room temperature. The initial discovery was made by Ludvig de Knoop [9] who was a researcher in her group. [10] He noticed that the surface of gold lost its bonds under the bombardment with electrons within an electron microscope. [9] Knoop and Olsson were among those who wrote the paper for the journal Physical Review Materials in 2018. [11] Olsson could see applications of this phenomenon for sensors and transistors. [9] In 2018, she was awarded a further 25 million SEK to study plasmon-exciton coupling. [12]

Olsson is a member of the Nobel Prize in Physics Selection Committee. [13] When men won all of the science Nobel prizes in 2021, Olsson said "We want to have more women nominated". [14]

Selected publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electron microscope</span> Type of microscope with electrons as a source of illumination

An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of electrons as a source of illumination. They use electron optics that are analogous to the glass lenses of an optical light microscope to control the electron beam, for instance focusing them to produce magnified images or electron diffraction patterns. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000 times smaller than that of visible light, electron microscopes have a much higher resolution of about 0.1 nm, which compares to about 200 nm for light microscopes. Electron microscope may refer to:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Microscope</span> Scientific instrument

A microscope is a laboratory instrument used to examine objects that are too small to be seen by the naked eye. Microscopy is the science of investigating small objects and structures using a microscope. Microscopic means being invisible to the eye unless aided by a microscope.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Optical microscope</span> Microscope that uses visible light

The optical microscope, also referred to as a light microscope, is a type of microscope that commonly uses visible light and a system of lenses to generate magnified images of small objects. Optical microscopes are the oldest design of microscope and were possibly invented in their present compound form in the 17th century. Basic optical microscopes can be very simple, although many complex designs aim to improve resolution and sample contrast.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Transmission electron microscopy</span> Imaging and diffraction using electrons that pass through samples

Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) is a microscopy technique in which a beam of electrons is transmitted through a specimen to form an image. The specimen is most often an ultrathin section less than 100 nm thick or a suspension on a grid. An image is formed from the interaction of the electrons with the sample as the beam is transmitted through the specimen. The image is then magnified and focused onto an imaging device, such as a fluorescent screen, a layer of photographic film, or a sensor such as a scintillator attached to a charge-coupled device.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">X-ray microscope</span> Type of microscope that uses X-rays

An X-ray microscope uses electromagnetic radiation in the X-ray band to produce magnified images of objects. Since X-rays penetrate most objects, there is no need to specially prepare them for X-ray microscopy observations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Wallenberg Sr.</span> Swedish businessman (1926–2015)

Peter "Pirre" Wallenberg Sr. was a Swedish business leader who was chairman of Investor AB for ten years.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation</span> Swedish research foundation

Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW) is a Swedish public and private foundation formed in 1917 by Knut Agathon Wallenberg and his wife Alice Wallenberg. It was created to support research in the natural sciences, technology and medicine by awarding long-term grants to basic research of the highest international class.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nobel Committee for Physics</span>

The Nobel Committee for Physics is the Nobel Committee responsible for proposing laureates for the Nobel Prize for Physics. The Nobel Committee for Physics is appointed by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. It usually consists of Swedish professors of physics who are members of the Academy, although the Academy in principle could appoint anyone to the Committee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fritiof S. Sjöstrand</span>

Fritiof Stig Sjöstrand was a Swedish physician and histologist born in Stockholm. He started his medical education at Karolinska Institutet in 1933, where he received his Ph.D. Karolinska Institutet in 1944. Sjöstrand worked as an assistant at the department of pharmacology, where he first had used polarization microscopy, he first heard about the new method of electron microscopy in 1938, within which he would become a pioneer. Manne Siegbahn at the Nobel Institute for Physics had planned to build an electron microscope in Sweden, and Sjöstrand got involved in the project to explore its use in medical research. The main challenge was to produce sufficiently thin samples, and Sjöstrand's method for producing ultrathin tissue samples was published in Nature in 1943. However, it seemed that research based on electron microscopy would be too time-consuming for a Ph.D. thesis, so his 1944 thesis was based on fluorescence spectroscopy. In 1947-1948, he received a scholarship to further study electron microscopy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Department of Biology. Back in Sweden, he received funding to build up an electron microscopy research laboratory. In 1959, Sjöstrand was both offered a position as professor of histology at Karolinska Institutet, and as professor at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). He chose UCLA, because conditions for research and funding were better there.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ondrej Krivanek</span> British physicist

Ondrej L. Krivanek is a Czech/British physicist resident in the United States, and a leading developer of electron-optical instrumentation. He won the Kavli Prize for Nanoscience in 2020 for his substantial innovations in atomic resolution electron microscopy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Claes-Göran Granqvist</span>

Claes-Göran Sture Granqvist is a materials physicist and Professor of Solid State Physics at Uppsala University in Sweden. Granqvist is considered a pioneer and expert in photochromic materials and energy-efficient building materials such as glass, paint, and wood.

Maximilian Haider is an Austrian physicist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harald Rose</span> German physicist

Harald Rose is a German physicist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pratibha Gai</span> British microscopist

Dame Pratibha Laxman Gai-Boyes is a British microscopist and Professor and Chair of Electron Microscopy and former Director at The York JEOL Nanocentre, Departments of Chemistry and Physics, University of York. She created the atomic-resolution environmental transmission electron microscope (ETEM) and is an outspoken advocate for women with careers in science.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Berit Wallenberg</span> Swedish anthropologist, archaeologist, photographer, philanthropist

Anna Berit Wallenberg was a Swedish archaeologist, anthropologist, art historian, photographer, and philanthropist. She established a research foundation, the Berit Wallenberg Foundation, that awards funds to these areas. Since its establishment, it has been providing support to cultural heritage institutions, art historians, and archaeologists. In 1936, she became the first Swedish woman to be appointed as a supervisor for the national heritage committee, responsible for the restoration of the Lovö church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jacob Wallenberg (1892–1980)</span> Swedish banker (1892–1980)

Jacob "Juju" Wallenberg was a Swedish banker and industrial leader. Wallenberg held various central positions in Stockholms Enskilda Bank. He was also chairman of the board of several companies, including Stora Kopparbergs Bergslag and Orkla Mining Company. From 1934 to 1944 he was a member of the Swedish governmental commission for trade with Germany.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lisbeth Olsson</span> Swedish microbiologist and professor

Lisbeth Olsson is a Swedish microbiologist and a Professor in industrial biotechnology at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg.

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "Portrait: Like an eternity, a universe to marvel | Chalmers". www.chalmers.se. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  2. "CV – University of Oslo" (PDF). 2021. Retrieved 16 October 2021.
  3. "Eva Olsson | Chalmers". www.chalmers.se. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  4. 1 2 "RESEARCH". Eva Olsson Group | Chalmers. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  5. "ESTEEM3: Access to CMAL Chalmers". www.esteem3.eu. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  6. "Nationellt viktig infrastruktur 2013 | Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse" [Nationally important infrastructure 2013 | Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation] (in Swedish). 27 August 2016. Archived from the original on 27 August 2016. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  7. "Interview 09: Super High Precision Imaging, High Spatial and Energy Resolution Spectroscopy and In situ Electron Microscopy for Materials for Tomorrow and a Sustainable Future". www.jeol.co.jp. January 2020. Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  8. Karlsson-Ottosson, Ulla (27 June 2013). "Chalmers hårdsatsar på mjuk mikroskopi" [Chalmers focuses on soft microscopy]. NyTeknik (in Swedish). Retrieved 18 October 2021.
  9. 1 2 3 "How to melt gold at room temperature". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  10. "Ludvig de Knoop". Eva Olsson Group | Chalmers. Retrieved 17 October 2021.
  11. de Knoop, Ludvig; Juhani Kuisma, Mikael; Löfgren, Joakim; Lodewijks, Kristof; Thuvander, Mattias; Erhart, Paul; Dmitriev, Alexandre; Olsson, Eva (22 August 2018). "Electric-field-controlled reversible order-disorder switching of a metal tip surface". Physical Review Materials. 2 (8): 085006. arXiv: 1805.02402 . Bibcode:2018PhRvM...2h5006D. doi:10.1103/PhysRevMaterials.2.085006. S2CID   119012707.
  12. "De utforskar mötet mellan ljus och materia i rumstemperatur | Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse" [They explore the meeting between light and matter at room temperature | Knut and Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse] (in Swedish). 23 October 2019. Archived from the original on 23 October 2019. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  13. AFP (3 October 2020). "On Nobel committees, women are in short supply". Digital Journal. Retrieved 14 October 2021.
  14. "One reason men often sweep the Nobels: few women nominees". science.org. Retrieved 14 October 2021.