Kristina Edström, Professor of inorganic chemistry at Uppsala University, is a veteran of battery research in Sweden and Europe. She is also Coordinator of Battery 2030+, the European research programme.
The Swedish Chemical Society presented Edström with the Bror Holmberg medal in February in recognition of her research work. It is the latest gong to add to her extensive collection of awards.
The society said in its announcement that it was making the award in recognition of outstanding work in Swedish and international battery research: “She has been a pioneer in the use of X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to decipher structure and composition of functional phase transitions and interface in battery material. Her strong leadership has brought research into focus and stimulated inter-country and inter-disciplinary collaboration.”
The Bror Holmberg medal is awarded for outstanding chemistry research every 2–3 years or so.
Edström’s research focuses on batteries and electrode material, covering lithium-ion, sodium-ion and solid-state batteries. Her particular interest is in studying interfaces between materials and components and she has developed in situ/operando techniques.
She has said that when she started researching batteries, it attracted little outside interest. Now, thanks to electrification, everyone wants to talk to her and her team. Research and industry have up to now concentrated on transport/mobility, but she sees energy storage as a growing area of interest, and one in which she expects great strides.
According to the Swedish Chemical Society, Edström has also studied new anode material and self-repairing batteries.
For the last five years, Edström has co-ordinated the work of Battery 2030+. Before that, she was vice dean for research at Uppsala’s faculty of science and technology and chair of the research programme STandUp for Energy. That is a collaboration between Uppsala University, the Royal Institute of Technology, the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and Luleå University of Technology.
Edström leads the Ångström Advanced Battery Centre, the largest battery research group in the Nordic region. She has more than 330 scientific papers with an H-index of 77.
She has said she enjoys nurturing upcoming young researchers, passing on her years of experience and knowledge.
Other notables:
- elected member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Sciences, where she is a board member, and of the Royal Academy of Sciences
- honorary doctor at the Norwegian University of Science & Technology
- received the Swedish Royal Institute of Technology grand prize
- gold medal from the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering
- International Battery Materials Association Yeager Award
- Wallenberg Scholar
- scientific coordinator of Batteries Sweden
- trustee on the board of Faraday Initiative UK.
Less well known is Edström’s skill in knitting and crocheting. Her mother Vivi Edström – professor of literature at Stockholm university – was the first professor of children’s literature in Scandinavia, and one of Sweden’s first female professors. She took hard knocks as a woman researcher, questioned her daughter’s determination to become a scientist, but encouraged her self -belief and self-confidence.
