Biosketch
RESEARCH
Magnus Jonsson is a professor of applied physics at Linköping University in Sweden. He leads a research group focusing on organic photonics and nanooptics. The group is based at the Laboratory of Organic Electronics. Prof. Jonsson is the director of MyFab@LiU and co-director of the cross-departmental interdisciplinary Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials at Linköping University (SFO-Mat-LiU). He received his docent (habilitation) in organic electronics in 2016 and was appointed Wallenberg Academy Fellow in 2019 (with prolongation). He received a Swedish Research Council Consolidator grant in 2020 and an ERC Consolidator grant in 2023. His main research interests are to develop and study novel nanooptical concepts for application in sensors, displays, energy systems and smart materials. The group focuses particularly on exploring unique possibilities of organic materials for nanooptics, and recently introduced conducting polymers as a new type of materials for dynamic plasmonics. The group later contributed with a breakthrough study on electrically tuneable conducting polymer nanoantennas.
During 2011-2014, Magnus was a postdoctoral Wenner-Gren Fellow in Prof. Cees Dekker’s lab at the Bionanoscience department of TU Delft, where he developed the concept of plasmonic nanopores for single-molecule biosensing together with his colleagues. Before that, he did his PhD studies at Lund University and Chalmers University of Technology in the group of Prof. Fredrik Höök (the group moved about half way into his PhD). Jonsson’s PhD studies focused on nanoplasmonic biosensing, including development of flow-through plasmonic nanopore sensors, sensors compatible with artificial cell membranes, plasmonic sensors with electrical read-out and plasmonic sensing of structural changes in addition to binding events. He has an undergraduate degree in physics from Lund University.
TEACHING, SUPERVISION AND LEADERSHIP
Prof. Jonsson has a strong interest in leadership and pedagogic activities. He is currently guiding several PhD students and postdocs and is or has been involved in undergraduate teaching via courses in physics, chemistry and organic electronics. In addition to running his research group, his leadership experience includes being the chair of the Young Academy of Sweden (2019-2020), which gathers around 35 prominent young researcher leaders. He was the co-chair of the same academy the year before that.
SOCIETAL ENGAGEMENT, RESEARCH POLICY AND INDUSTRY COLLABORATION
Since the start of his academic career, Prof. Jonsson has been interested in public outreach. During his undergraduate studies at Lund University he was a teacher for children coming to the university to do do simple experiments and to learn how fun and important science is (2000-2002). He was then part of the Physics and Laser show at Lund University for many years (2002-2008). More recently, he had the chance to be involved in and organise several outreach activities via the Young Academy of Sweden (2015-2020), including summer school for high school students and popular science presentation at the Swedish parliament. Likewise, the Young Academy of Sweden formed an important platform for Prof. Jonssons’ interest in research policy. He has been involved in writing several debate articles and policy documents, as well as panel debates and meetings with politicians. Some of these activities have been jointly held with other organisations, such as funding agencies and other academies, including the Royal Swedish Academy of Science (KVA), the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA), and young academies in other countries. At the research side, Prof. Jonsson’s activities include applied projects that have resulted in patent applications and/or been performed in collaboration with industry.
Brief CV
CURRENT MAIN POSITIONS
• Professor of Applied Physics, Linköping University, 2021-now
• Director of MyFab@LiU, 2024-now
• Co-director of the International Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials (AFM) at Linköping University, 2022-now
PREVIOUS POSITIONS AND DEGREES
• Vice head of the Laboratory of Organic Electronics, Linköping, 2022-2024
• Associate Professor (Sv: Bit. Professor) of Organic Electronics, Linköping Uni. 2021-2021
• Senior Lecturer (Sv. Lektor), Lab. of Organic Electronics, Linköping University 2016-2021
• Docent in Organic Electronics, Linköping University, 2016
• Lecturer, Laboratory of Organic Electronics, Linköping University, 2014-2016
• Postdoc/Wenner-Gren Fellow, Cees Dekker lab, Delft University of Technology 2011-2014
• PhD in Physics, Chalmers University of Technology, 2011
• MSc in Physics, Lund University, 2005
MAIN GRANTS, SCHOLARSHIPS AND AWARDS (main PI if not stated otherwise)
• ERC Consolidator Grant, 2023-2028
• STIAS Research Fellow , 2023
• Project grant from SFO Mat LiU, Advanced Functional Materials, 2021-2023
• Swedish Research Council consolidator grant, 2021-2026
• Wallenberg Academy Fellow, 2020-2025 (+prolongation granted in 2020)
• Research grant from the ÅForsk foundation, 2020-2022
• Knut and Alice Wallenberg project grant (co-PI), 2019-2023
• SSF Energy Materials (co-PI), 2018-2022
• Project grant from SFO Mat LiU, Advanced Functional Materials, 2018-2020
• Wenner-Gren Foundation scholarship for incoming postdoc, 2018-2019
• Swedish Research Council Young Researcher Grant, 2016-2020
• Swedish Foundation for Strategic Research-Ingvar Carlsson Award, 2015-2018
• Selected as Emerging Investigator by the Journal of Materials Chemistry C, 2017
• Research grant from the ÅForsk foundation, 2017-2018
• Wenner-Gren Foundation scholarship for incoming postdoc, 2015-2017
• Wenner-Gren Fellow, 2011-2016
• Best oral presentation, 2nd Int. Conf. on Bio-Sensing Technology, Amsterdam, 2011
• The Elsevier Biosensors and Bioelectronics Award 2010
• The St Jude Medicals Research Scholarship 2009
• MRS Graduate Student Gold Award, MRS Spring meeting, San Francisco, US 2009
OTHER ASSIGNMENTS AND EXPERIENCES
• Board member of Photonics Sweden, 2024-now
• Member of subcommittee FS6 for CLEO 2023
• Chair of Topical Meeting 5 on Optical Materials at the European Optical Society Annual Meeting 2023
• Editorial Advisory Board for ACS Applied Optical Materials, 2022-now
• Delegate at the Royal Technology Mission 2022 to France and Germany, led by H.M The King of Sweden and the chair of IVA Marcus Wallenberg
• Deputy steering committee member of the International Interdisciplinary Laboratory for Advanced Functional Materials (AFM) at Linköping University, 2018-2022
• Participant at the 2019 EU-US Frontiers of Engineering Symposium, Stockholm
• Swedish representative at the Sino-Swedish Top Scientist Forum, Stockholm, 2019
• Chair of the Young Academy of Sweden 2019/2020, vice chair 2018/2019, head of election 2018
• Panel member for the Swedish Research Council, 2018
• Board member of Ligna Energy Aktieklubb AB (LEAK), 2018-now
• Significant outreach activities, including commentator during the Nobel Physics Prize 2018, 2019 and 2020; Popular science texts (see publications), Physics and Laser show 2002-2008, high school summer school teacher 2018, etc.
• Significant research policy activities (debate articles, panel discussions, policy documents, meeting with the Swedish minister of Research and Higher Education, etc.)
• Opponent, examiner or member of several PhD committees, at KU Leuven, University of South Australia, Chalmers University of Technology, Royal Institute of Technology, Gothenburg University, Umeå University, Linköping University
• Invited referee for >20 journals, e.g. Nature Materials/Photonics/Communications, Nano Letters, etc.
• Invited referee for national and international funding agencies, including the Swedish Research council, ERC, German/Austrian Research Foundations, etc.
• Teaching experience from different universities and countries, including at Lund University, Chalmers University of Technology, Technical University of Delft, EPFL (PhD summer school), Linköping University