Linköping Universitet
Liniköping University (LIU, www.liu.se ) is Sweden’s fifth largest university with 27,000 students, 1,300 research students and 4,000 employees, and stands at position 28 among the world’s 50 best young universities in the latest ranking by the prestigious QS World University Rankings. LIU is innovative, highly ranked and known for close collaboration with business and society. Scientific relevance and societal needs are the dual criteria the university explicitly has set for its strategic initiatives. With a stronghold in applied research, and with educational programmes mainly focusing on professional degrees such as engineering, medicine, management and teaching, an ongoing dialog with industry and society has been pivotal for success. Linköping University is an experienced actor in European research projects (with over 120 projects in FP7, 23 of those as the coordinator/single beneficiary) and has well-established processes for project management, project infrastructure, and administrative routines for EU projects through its own Grants Office that serves researchers and departments in their participation in Horizon 2020 (www.liu.se/go).
The Dept. of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM) at LIU is a multi-disciplinary school, offering an almost unique collaborative atmosphere between the disciplines of Chemistry, Biology, Engineering and Physics, with low boundaries between the different research groups. LIU has always been a key player in the field of conducting polymers (CPs), spanning the full width from theoretical calculations, new materials synthesis to applications such as photovoltaics and actuators. The first CP actuators, the first CP microactuators, and smallest soft microrobot for manipulating single cells (by Dr Jager) were all developed at LIU. The CP research at LIU has made considerable impact, spinning out several companies such as Thin Film Electronics AB and Micromuscle AB. LIU has produced over 65 scientific publications in the field of CP and EAP actuators alone (3 in “Science”).
Dr. Edwin Jager
Assistant Professor
| Workpackage Leader:
In-air actuating yarns (WP3) |
Edwin is Associated Professor in Applied Physics. He received his M.Sc.Eng. degree (or) in Applied Physics at University of Twente, The Netherlands in 1996, specializing in transduction science. In 2001, he received his Ph.D. in Applied Physics at Linköping University, Sweden. During his PhD-studies, he developed biomedical applications of polypyrrole microactuators, such as a “cell clinic” and a microrobot. This work was continued in several spin-off companies developing and commercializing medical applications of the polypyrrole actuator technology in collaboration with large medical device companies. Thereafter, he returned to academia as an assistant professor in made transitions between disciplines (e.g. Biosensors, Electroactive Polymers) and holds close contacts to international research groups (Australia, Japan).
Dr. Daniel Melling
Daniel Melling returned to academic research after working for approximately ten years in the polymer and pharmaceutical industries where he undertook research synthesising new materials and undertaking method development for quality control. He obtained his Ph.D. in 2013 from Cranfield University (UK) on the impact of structural changes on the actuation of polypyrroles. As a postdoc in the group of Sir Alfred Cuschieri, IMSaT, University of Dundee (UK) he worked on the development of new materials for surgical robotics until 2018, where he was appointed head of the Smart Materials and Polymer laboratory. Here he obtained funding as a Co-PI to develop new composite hydrogels for coating textiles for use in wound dressings for the treatment of pressure ulcers. Since 2019 he moved to IFM,Linköping University, Sweden, to join the Sensors and Actuators group of Edwin Jager to develop new conjugated polymer-ionogel composites, for fibre and textile actuators on the EU2020 project Weafing.
Dr. Shayan Mehraeen
Postdoctoral Researcher
Shayan Mehraeen has a background in materials science and engineering. He received his PhD within polymeric actuators based on conductive polymers in 2018 from Sabanci University (Turkey). Since then, he joined Bionics and Transduction Unit at the Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology (IFM) at Linköping University (Sweden) as a postdoctoral researcher under the supervision of Dr. Edwin Jager. He is currently working on the preparation and characterization of smart yarn and fabric actuators.