Innovation Team

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 works as Head of Innovation at the Graphene Flagship, where he also is a member of the Management Panel and the Executive Board.

Aleksandra spent her early career studying biotechnology until she learned about technology transfer and entrepreneurship areas and fell deeply in love with them deciding to make helping scientists bring their ideas to market her life goal. With experience working with technology transfer in academia and business, Aleksandra manages Graphene Flagship innovation education activities within WP16 Innovation. Outside work, you will find Aleksandra playing video games and board games or cuddling with her cat on the couch.

Francesco Bonaccorso is the Scientific Director of BeDimensional SpA and visiting Scientist at the Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia. Prior to assuming a role as Deputy of the work package Innovation within the Graphene Flagship, Francesco has been responsible for defining the ten years scientific and technological roadmap of the project. He was also featured as 2016 Emerging Investigator by J. Mater. Chem. A and in 2019 by ChemPlusChem. He is also co-founder of Cambridge Graphene Ltd and BeDimensional Spa.

Sofia Öiseth is the Outreach manager for the Graphene Flagship and Admin for WP16 Innovation. She is responsible for organising Innovation Workshops that brings 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.

Eric Ramberg assists the Graphene Flagship and individual participants with a range of intellectual property matters. He is both a European patent attorney and US registered patent agent. Prior to joining CIT, Eric developed IP strategies for companies ranging from startups to large multinationals. After post-docs in France, Eric spent most of his career in silicon valley, including operating roles at startups, seed stage venture capital, and patent law. His PhD (Penn) and BS/MS (Penn State) are in Materials Science and Engineering.