Meet the Team

Patrik Johansson is the Director for the Graphene Flagship. He is Professor in Physics at Chalmers University of Technology and also co-director of Alistore-ERI, a unit within CNRS, France. His focus is on battery research and development, where he holds a 10-year Distinguished Professor Grant from the Swedish Research Council. 
He has used graphene to leverage Li-S batteries within Core 3 (a previous iteration of the Graphene Flagship) and also studied grafted graphene-based electrodes, both computationally and experimentally, with partners in Slovenia and Bulgaria.

Macarena Muñoz Ruiz leads the governance and coordination work of the Graphene Flagship. Macarena holds a Bachelor in Law and Master's Degree in European Studies, and joined the Graphene Flagship in December 2014. She previously worked on different EU-funded projects and initiatives at the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), and collaborated with the Spanish Ministry of Science as FP7/H2020 National Contact Point. Passionate about Mediterranean culture, food and weather, she enjoys spending time with her family and friends, and trying to find the perfect gazpacho recipe!

Jackie Brown-Bauer is a Project Manager, responsible for 2D-EPL project administration and various aspects of coordination and governance in the Graphene Flagship. Jackie has two Master’s degrees in Eastern European History and Politics and a BA in History and English Literature (she’s doing her best to become literate in the sciences!). Before joining the Graphene Flagship, she worked for Region Västra Götaland in the Department of Research and Innovation. Jackie is originally from the United States but has been living in Sweden for ten years, where she has learned the art of “fika” and how to survive in the northern latitudes.

Rebecca Waters oversees the Dissemination activities and manages project tasks and personnel. Rebecca also serves as the Graphene Flagship Communications Officer writing and disseminating corporate news, managing the website and overseeing media outreach. A former journalist with a degree from Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, Rebecca worked for both consumer and B2B magazines before joining the Graphene Flagship. In her spare time, she enjoys cooking, boating and exploring the world with her family.

Luciana Zanin-Löberg, a Project Manager at Chalmers University of Technology in Gothenburg, leads networking and collaboration initiatives at the Graphene Flagship. This involves organizing events like the annual Graphene Week meeting, digital events, and the Alumni program to facilitate knowledge exchange, create business opportunities, and offer impactful experiences to specialists and early career professionals. Luciana's definition of success centers on positive impact events, social responsibility, innovation and learning opportunities. With a master’s degrees in business, she traded Brazil's tropical climates for a more tranquil life in Sweden, where she enjoys activities like riding her electric bicycle.

Flavia Maia is a Project Manager at the Graphene Flagship. She has been working with the Flagship since 2015, organising reviews and other meetings, editing the Crew Communication and Onboard. Since February 2024 Flavia is more involved with the CSA Governance and reporting, she also is the person to reach when thinking Diversity in Graphene. Flavia is a journalist and has worked as a radio producer and tv reporter in her home country Brazil. She lives in Mölndal with her husband and son, in a house where the radio is always on playing anything from AC/DC to Brazilian MPB!

Dana Gilliland-Wiström provides strategic communications support to the Dissemination team and comes with experience in project and event management, public outreach and communications and holds a Master's degree in Sustainability Science from Lund University, Sweden (although originally from California). Dana splits her time between the Graphene Flagship and the Circular Economy team at Chalmers Industriteknik. In her free time, she enjoys hiking, yoga, swimming, ceramics and cooking.  

Sara Plebani contributes to the Dissemination Team at the Graphene Flagship, where she specializes in event management and communication. With an MS in Communication from Göteborg Universitet and a BA in Foreign Languages and International Relations from Italy, Sara decided to move to Sweden three years ago after studying Swedish in her home country. She now spends her free time exploring her adoptive country, experimenting with cooking and getting creative through crafting and photography.

Kirsten Loewenthal provides marketing and social media expertise at the Graphene Flagship, joining in May 2024. She develops strategies to increase visibility and engagement through social media, using insights from people’s behaviour online to create compelling content. Kirsten also brings expertise in video production and a natural ability to connect with people.She holds a master’s in Marketing and Social Media, along with studies in Business Planning and Sociology. Currently, she’s diving into neuromarketing. Kirsten is also a visual artist and illustrator. In her free time she enjoys painting, sculpting, singing and dancing. She is a passionate art and music lover—there’s always a song playing in her head.

Sofia Öiseth is the outreach manager for the Graphene Flagship and is responsible for organising Innovation workshops that bring industry and academia together. Sofia has over 20 years of experience in applied research with expertise in material and food science and has worked as a research scientist in Australia at Monash University and at CSIRO. In August 2019, she joined Chalmers Industriteknik and the Graphene Flagship. When not at work she enjoys being outdoors.

Dr. Kari Hjelt holds a PhD in Engineering Physics from Helsinki University of Technology, as well as an Executive MBA from the London Business School. Hjelt has extensive experience in building up corporate research and venture activities. He has been the founder and CEO of several start-up companies, as well as worked as director at Nokia Ventures Organization and at Nokia Research Centre. Currently, Hjelt leads the Innovation work package at the Graphene Flagship, where he also is a member of the Executive Board.

Dr. Henning Döscher is a project manager and senior researcher at the Emerging Technologies department of the Fraunhofer Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI in Karlsruhe, Germany, since 2017. His work at Fraunhofer ISI focuses on innovation systems investigations on novel materials and technologies. Among other projects, Henning currently contributes to the Graphene Flagship Project, where he coordinates the Technology and Innovation Roadmap process. He studied Physics (and Physical Technologies) as well as Business Information Systems at TU Clausthal. In 2006, he joined Helmholtz-Zentrum Berlin (former Hahn-Meitner-Institut) and received his doctorate from Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin in 2010 based on a thesis on III-V heteroepitaxy on silicon substrates. 

Dr. Ana Maria Ciubotaru is Science Officer at the European Science Foundation. Within the GrapheneEU CSA, she is leading the European and international alignment Work Package which aims at strengthening the 2DM community and promoting synergies between the Graphene Flagship and other relevant national and regional initiatives and stakeholders. Ana-Maria has been working with the Flagship for over a decade on activities related to European alignment and international collaborations. She holds a Master’s degree in materials science and a PhD in physical chemistry from the Universities of Transilvania (Romania) and Bourgogne (France).

Stefania Vitale is Project Officer at European Science Foundation (France). In Graphene Flagship she contributes to the management and implementation of European alignment and international collaborations. She holds a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Catania (Italy), with a solid background in material chemistry and extensive knowledge in nanomaterials and surface engineering. After her PhD she worked as postdoctoral research fellow at University College Dublin (Ireland) and University of Strasbourg (France), gaining significant expertise in academic research and scientific projects management. Off work she enjoys baking and cooking, and she is an enthusiastic book reader.

Thomas Reiss is Senior Scientist at the Fraunhofer-Institute for Systems and Innovation Research ISI, Karlsruhe, Germany, and member of the Graphene Flagship roadmap team. He holds a doctoral degree in Molecular Biology from Freiburg University, Germany. After a post-doctoral fellowship at the DOE Plant Research Laboratory, Michigan State University (USA) he joined Fraunhofer ISI as Project Manager in 1987. 1996-2004 Head of the department Innovations in Biotechnology, from 2005 to 2020 Head of the Competence Center Emerging Technologies. Since 2014 Thomas has been PI of the Fraunhofer Team within the Graphene Flagship and coordinator the roadmap work. He served as Head and Deputy Head of Work Package Industrialisation of the previous phase of the Graphene Flagship.

Dr. Jörg Radnik is Senior Scientist at the Federal Institute for Material Research and Testing, Berlin in the Division 6.1 “Surface analysis and Interfacial Chemistry” and working in the competence centre nano@BAM. His research focuses on the chemical analysis of nanostructured materials. He is and was involved in different nanosafety-related research projects (e.g. ACEnano, NanoSolveIt, ACCORDs) and in metrological projects (e.g. ISO-G-Scope). Since October 2023, he is leading the standardization and regulation task in the Graphene Flagship CSA. Furthermore, he is member of the Surface Analysis Working group of the consultative committee for amount of substance: metrology in chemistry and biology (CCQM) of the Bureau International des Poids et Mesure (BIPM) and one of the German representatives in the Versailles Project on Advanced Materials and Standards (VAMAS). In these functions, he leads different projects to enhance the accuracy and conformity of chemical methods in the field of nanomaterials. Furthermore, he is official delegate of the Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN) in the technical committees for Surface Analytics and Nanotechnologies. 

Professor Andrea Ferrari earned a PhD in electrical engineering from Cambridge University, after a Laurea in nuclear engineering from Politecnico di Milano, Italy. He is Professor of Nanotechnology and Director of the Cambridge Graphene Centre and EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Graphene Technology. He is Fellow of Pembroke College, the American Physical Society, the Institute of Physics and the Materials Research Society.