Director and Management

Humble beginnings

It was in late spring 2010 when the European Commission sent out the email that sparked Jari Kinaret’s initiative. The Commission had sent an open invitation to submit project ideas for European research flagships, planning to invest major resources in the best project. So Kinaret wrote his own proposal, and sowed the seed that grew into Europe’s biggest research initiative ever – the Graphene Flagship.

“Some of the applicants had already been developing and lobbying for their ideas for a long time, but I wasn’t very impressed. I thought graphene was a better idea, and I got the opportunity to present my proposal in Brussels. They said I would have five minutes for my presentation, but I only got three,” Kinaret says.

Graphene Flagship Leadership

Jari Kinaret

Jari is Professor of Physics at the Chalmers University of Technology, and since 2013 he serves as the Graphene Flagship Director. As Director, he is responsible for the overall management of the Graphene Flagship and represents it towards key stakeholders including the European Commission. Before joining the flagship he was Director of Nanoscience and Nanotechnology at Chalmers, and was engaged in research and teaching in theoretical condensed matter physics. He holds a MSc degree in Theoretical Physics and Electrical Engineering, both from the University of Oulu in Finland, and a PhD in Physics from MIT in the US. Outside work he likes to solve puzzles and go for long, slow runs.

Patrik Johansson

Patrik Johansson is the Vice Director for the Graphene Flagship. Johansson is a Professor in Physics at Chalmers University of Technology and co-director of Alistore-ERI, from French Graphene Flagship partner CNRS. He focuses on battery research, and has worked on Li-S battery development with the Graphene Flagship’s Energy Storage Work Package since the launch of the latest Core project. Johansson studied grafted graphene-based electrodes both computationally and experimentally with partners in Slovenia and Bulgaria, among others.

Andrea Ferrari

Andrea C. Ferrari is the Science and Technology Officer and Chair of the Graphene Flagship Management Panel. Andrea 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.