Patrik Johansson becomes Graphene Flagship Vice Director

On 1 February 2021, Patrik Johansson took on the position of Vice Director for the Graphene Flagship. Professor in Physics at Chalmers University of Technology and co-director of Alistore-ERI, from French Graphene Flagship partner CNRS, Johansson will replace Vincenzo Palermo who served as Graphene Flagship Vice Director for three years.

Patrik Johansson 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 last spring. Beyond this, Johansson studied grafted graphene-based electrodes both computationally and experimentally with partners in Slovenia and Bulgaria, among others. This work has targeted next generation batteries with novel charge carriers, like Ca and Al. 

“I look forward to gaining a wider scope in my understanding and use of graphene in my new role with the Graphene Flagship,” Johansson says. “In particular, I hope I can help contribute to the Graphene Flagship’s efforts to raise the maturity level of projects and develop solutions to urgent problems. I’m also excited to help raise awareness about graphene, for everyone – from school children to governments. I am, of course, going to enjoy the new environment. To me, research is very much a social activity.”

Passing the baton

Vincenzo Palermo is now the Director of the Institute for Organic Synthesis and Photoreactivity (ISOF) in Bologna. ISOF is part of the National Research Council (CNR), the largest public research institution in Italy comprised of over 8,000 people working across 91 research institutes and 2 polar bases. As the Director of ISOF, he coordinates research on advanced materials, nanotechnology and photochemistry for healthcare, energy and environmental protection applications.

Palermo is particularly proud of his contributions to the Graphene Flagship’s dissemination activities in his role as Vice Director and  Work Package Leader for Dissemination. He was particularly involved in initiatives to disseminate the project’s results to industrial stakeholders, contributing to the creation of the Graphene Marketplace events, where researchers from the project visit the headquarters of a major European industrial partner to present their prototypes to hundreds of industrial researchers and engineers. Palermo was instrumental in organizing events at our partner institutions Airbus, Leonardo and Tetra Pak, yielding new collaborations, new ideas and high visibility for the Graphene Flagship.

In his new role at ISOF, Palermo will continue to contribute to the Graphene Flagship as the principal investigator for CNR. CNR is active in various Graphene Flagship Work Packages and ISOF is currently producing composites, coatings, flexible electronics and water filters as part of its contribution to the Graphene Flagship. CNR is also involved in three different Spearhead Projects  led by partners Airbus, Fiat Chrysler Auto (FCA) and Medica. Palermo will continue working as deputy leader of the G+BOARD Spearhead Project on automotive applications coordinated by FCA.

“I will miss my former collaborators in the Graphene Flagship,” Palermo says. “Being a scientist and a chemist by education, I really appreciated working with people from different backgrounds like journalism, dissemination or events management. I will still work with them in the future, but I’ll miss the daily interactions.”

“Graphene is a translational technology with applications that span from hard physics to consumer products,” he adds. “Because of this, as Vice Director and Work Package Leader for Dissemination, I was fortunate enough to be able to visit a great variety of environments of interest to the Graphene Flagship, from huge plants where airplanes are made to physics labs studying space exploration, from water purification plants to microelectronics facilities. I will miss the variety!"