Thursday, 29 January 2015 10:33

Andreas Fall Awarded 2015 Alf de Ruvo Scholarship

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andreas-fall-190x240-2The 2015 Alf de Ruvo scholarship, worth SEK 500,000, has been awarded to Dr. Andreas Fall for his comprehensive mapping of colloid chemistry interactions in nanocellulose systems, which may contribute to the development of entirely new materials.

The Alf de Ruvo Memorial Foundation awards scholarships to researchers within the sphere of cellulose-fibre-based materials. The amount of each scholarship is SEK 500,000. The foundation was formed in 2000 with funds donated in memory of Alf de Ruvo (1938–2000), Licentiate of Engineering and Executive Vice President of SCA.

Through experiments, the 2015 Alf de Ruvo scholarship winner Andreas Fall has shown which factors that control the surface potential of nanoscale cellulose, and how, by controlling the surface potential, the cellulose nanofibrils can be oriented, so strong continuous fibres can be produced. Andreas has also managed to produce fibril reinforced composites of polymethylmethacrylate by checking the gel formation of nanoscale cellulose.

This work has deepened our understanding of the fundamental mechanisms that will contribute to the development of entirely new material types such as foams, composites and reconstituted cellulose fibres based on nanocellulose.

“My vision is to in future work be able to orient and modify fibrils so that they may be used in, for example, oriented water-absorbing foams, batteries, super strong composites or ultra-capacitors”, says Andreas.

Andreas Fall currently works at the Environmental and Material Chemistry Department at Stockholm University. His new task is to utilize his colloidal knowledge to develop lightweight and mechanically robust porous materials based on cellulose nanofibrils (CNF) with improved fire retardency. A potential application is thermal isolation, for example in house walls and in electronic components. A suitable research environment for Andreas’ continued work is with Professor Christopher Weder at the University of Fribourg in Switzerland, which this scholarship makes possible.

Andreas Fall was born in Västerås, Sweden, 1981. He obtained his Master’s Degree in Biotechnology from Chalmers University of Technology, and achieved his Ph.D. in Fibre and Polymer Science 2014 from the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), where Professor Lars Wågberg was his main supervisor.

The scholarship was awarded today at a ceremony in Stockholm in conjunction with the Ekman Days conference sponsored by the Swedish Association of Pulp and Paper Engineers.

About Alf de Ruvo

Alf de Ruvo (1938-2000) was well-known and respected within the forest and paper industry. He held several leading positions, including Deputy CEO of SCA. He was also the Chairperson of FPIRC the Forest Products Industrial Research College at KTH. He carried out broad research within the field of cellulose fibre-based materials and contributed to the development of world class technical paper research. Within the packaging field he worked with the mechanical properties of paper and their importance for conversion and final use.

The Alf de Ruvo’s Memorial Foundation was established in 2000 with funds donated in his memory. Its purpose is to support forestry industry education and research activities that benefit technical and scientific progress within the industry.

The scholarships are appointed by the members of the Board of the Foundation in consultation with a research council. There is no application process.

Members of the Board: Prof. Tom Lindström (Innventia and KTH), Dir. Mikael Schmidt (Senior Vice President, SCA) and Associate Professor Rolf Andersson (Fellow Scientist Hygiene/Microbiology, SCA).

Research Council: Dir. Christer Söremark (consultant and researcher within the forest industry), Prof. Myat Htun (Mid Sweden University, Sundsvall), Prof. Gunilla Jönson (Principal of the Technical University of Lund), Prof. em. Gunnar Svedberg (consultant and former CEO STFI-Packforsk), Dr Micael Stehr (Head of FPIRC, KTH), and Head of Dept Ulf Carlson (Chalmers).

For more information please contact:

Tom Lindström

Principal scientist

INNVENTIA AB
Phone direct +46 (0)8 676 7370
Cell: +46 (0)70 657 01 94

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