Bengt Kasemo

Bengt Kasemo (born 1942) is Professor of Physics at Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, since 1983. He has published around 350 scientific papers, and is a frequently invited international conference speaker (ca.10 per year).

He heads a research group of 40 people active in Surface Science, Nanoscience, Biomedical Materials and Catalysis. He recently received a grant to build a program on Nanotechnology for Sustainable Energy and Environment at Chalmers. He has been directing several national programs on bio-interfaces and is leader of the EU FP 6 STREP program Nanocues.

He serves on the editorial boards of several international scientific journals. He has been serving on several national science policy and research funding boards, including the Swedish Government's Advisory Board for Research.

He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA), and has served one period as vice president for the latter. For both academies he is a member of their energy (and environment IVA) committees, and is currently chairing a joint project (including a book) between the two academies on communicating energy issues to society.

He has received several prices e.g. the George Winter award from the European Society for Biomaterials (1999) and the Akzo-Nobel prize from the Royal Academy of Engineering sciences (2001).

He has about 15 patents and has co-founded four start-up companies of which one, Q-Sense AB, is still active.

He is a member of the American Physical Society, American Chemical Society, American Vacuum Society, and the Biomaterials Society.

He is on the scientific advisory boards of the Fritz Haber Institute (MPI) in Berlin, the Materials Science Department at ETH Zurich, and the Hefei National Laboratory for Physical Sciences at the Microscale (HFNL) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. Currently he is serving as chair of a Norwegian committee to formulate a National Strategy in Nanotechnology, where energy technology is one of the highest priority areas.