When Maria Strømme became a professor of nanotechnology at Uppsala University, she became the youngest professor in a technical field in Sweden. Today, she is a pioneer in nanotechnology and lectures on its impact on society, healthcare, and humanity. She has been an invited speaker at the World Economic Forum in Davos, shared her research on the radio show Sommar i P1, and appeared on Skavlan twice.
Maria Strømme leads a research group consisting of 35 researchers who together develop nanomaterials for various medical and industrial applications. They gained attention after developing the environmentally friendly algae battery and the material Upsalite®, which researchers over the past 100 years had claimed would be impossible to create. She holds more than 60 patents and is the author of over 400 international journal publications. Maria has received numerous awards and recognitions for her research and discoveries. In 2012, she was awarded the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences (IVA) gold medal "for her fundamental and applied research in nanotechnology and her extensive entrepreneurship in physics and medicine." In 2016, she was named Swedish Woman of the Year by SWEA International, and that same year she also received the innovation award Hjärnäpplet and was named Honorary Uppsala Citizen of the Year.
Maria Strømme lectures on topics such as how nanotechnology can help us tackle the major challenges facing future generations, how science fiction-like methods could solve our energy problems, how cancer treatment can become more effective, and how smart bandages can influence wound healing. We can teach our bodies to rejuvenate, create environmentally friendly and smart packaging, develop new 4D printing techniques, and equip our clothing with entirely new functions. We can build cities without manual labor and create building materials from food waste. All in all, nanotechnology is a pending revolution!
