Visiting researchers

Professor Elisa Moretti, Ca’ Foscari, University of Venice, Italy.
Elisa Moretti
Host: Alberto Vomiero, Professor of Experimental Physics
Length of visit: 2 weeks
Visit dates: May 2022 - October 2022
Short biography
Elisa Moretti is an Associate Professor of Inorganic Chemistry at the Department of Molecular Sciences and Nanosystems, Ca 'Foscari University of Venice (Italy). After receiving a PhD Degree in Chemistry (2005) at the Ca 'Foscari University, she moved to the University of Malaga (Spain) for a post-doctoral experience. She is leading a multidisciplinary group focusing on the development of advanced 0-3D nanostructured inorganic materials for energy and environmental applications, including photocatalysis (eg on board H 2 purification by CO preferential thermal / photo-oxidation, dyes and drugs photodegradation for water remediation).
Aim and scope of the visit
Prof. Elisa Moretti's research interests are in the field of advanced nanomaterials for renewable energies and environmental remediation.
Elisa's research is naturally in line with SUN initiative, in terms of both use / re-use of natural resources and support to sustainability transition. Her direct connection with industrial partners on the use of raw materials makes the collaboration with Elisa a practical and direct opportunity to develop the mission of SUN's initiative about "showing the way for a successful restructuring of the basic industry", strengthening the international LTU's connections with Ca 'Foscari University of Venice. Elisa's visit will include seminars and joint research on nanomaterials for environmental remediation.

Juan Antelo, senior researcher, CRETUS, University of Santiago de Compostela, Spain
Juan Antelo
Värd: Ivan Carabante, Associate Professor Waste Science and Technology
Duration of visit: 2 months
Visit dates: April 2022 - March 2023
Short biography
Dr. Juan Antelo is a senior researcher at the Cross-disciplinary Research in Environmental Technologies (CRETUS) at the University of Santiago de Compostela, and a member of the AMBIOSOL research excellence group. His research is mainly oriented to the field of environmental geochemistry and soil chemistry. Dr. Antelo’s research interest includes surface chemistry of mineral oxides and natural organic matter, geochemical processes in polluted sites, acid mine drainage, design of sustainable remediation solutions, and the valorization of by-products and waste materials.
Aim and scope of the visit
Dr Juan Antelo has collaborated with the group of Waste Science and Technology in the last years. The main objective of this visit is to consolidate this collaboration by finalizing on going publications and new project proposals. Dr Juan Antelo will also introduce new research approaches and contribute in the supervision of PhD student. He will disseminate his science in courses and seminars as well as meet relevant researches during his stay at LTU.

Heiko Lange, Associate Professor, General and Inorganic Chemistry, University of Milan-Bicocca, Milan, Italy
Heiko Lange
Host: Leonidas Matsakas, Associate Professor, Biochemical Process Engineering
Duration of visit: 2 months
Dates of visit: August 2022 – September 2023
Short biography
Heiko Lange obtained his PhD from the University of Münster in Germany. He conducted post-doctoral research at the University of Cambridge, UK, and at Harvard University before starting studies on natural polyphenols at the University 'Tor Vergata' where he was eventually appointed Assistant Professor before moving to the University 'Federico II'. In 2021 HL was appointed Associate Professor of General and Inorganic Chemistry at the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Milano-Bicocca. His research comprises sustainable and / or green methods for the valorisation of natural polyphenols.
Aim and scope of the visit
SUN will benefit from enabling the launch of a new longer-term collaborative research project MOTIVATOR - Mineral-triggered Oxidoreductive Lignin Valorisation in Continuous Reactors. The research activities exploit ore and wood resources in an efficient novel process that is designed to flexibly host varying reaction parameters such as to allow tuning for natural variations in biomass and the targeted monomeric aromatic compounds. The visit also enables actively sharing knowledge in the form of seminars and lectures.

Julie Cool, Associate Professor, University of British Columbia, Canada
Julie Cool
Host: Magnus Fredriksson, Senior lecturer, Wood Science and Engineering
Duration of visit: 1 month
Date of visit: May 2022
Short biography
Dr. Julie Cool is an Associate Professor in Sawmilling Optimization at The University of British Columbia (UBC). Her research focuses on optimizing the wood-tool interaction to improve product quality, minimize energy consumption, reduce waste and eliminate unnecessary manufacturing operations, develop data-driven approaches to quality control, and understand how forest management practices impact volume and value recoveries in sawmills using both external and internal scanning technologies. Dr. Cool has published her findings in peer-reviewed journals.
Aim and scope of the visit
The aim of the visit from Dr. Cool is to highlight, via seminars and meetings, how the expertise found at UBC and LTU is complementary and identify paths for collaborative research, which could lead to significant improvements in effective forest resources transformation of wood products (eg, minimize waste production and energy consumption ) in both Sweden and Canada, thus fostering a sustainable wood industry and society at a large-scale.

Fidelis Suorineni, professor, School of Mining and Geosciences, Nazarbayev University, Kazakstan
Fidelis Suorineni
Host: David Saiang, Associate Professor, Mining & Rock Engineering
Duration of visit: 1.5 months
Date of visit: May – June 2022
Biography
Dr. Suorineni is currently Professor of Mining Engineering in the School of Mining and Geosciences at Nazarbayev University, Nur-Sultan (Astana), Kazakhstan. His previous positions include; Dean of the School of Mining and Geosciences at the same university, Inaugural Chair Professor of Mine Geotechnical Engineering at the School of Mining Engineering and University of New South Wales (UNSW Sydney), Australia. Dr. Suorineni has over 30 years' experience in teaching, research and consulting in Africa, North America, Australia and Asia.
Aims and objectives
Prof. Suorineni's short stint at the Division of Mining and Rock Engineering is aimed for the following objectives:
- To enhance our research group's knowledge in underground mining methods and improve on our knowledge gap in mine engineering.
- Directly involved in our research activities in alternative underground mining methods for deep mining and mining of complex orebodies.
- Establish a long terms research partnership and cooperation with Nazarbayev University in Kazakhstan. The Republic of Kazakhstan is the largest mining country in Central Asia.

Professor Thomas Pabst, Polytechnic Montreal, Kanada
Thomas Pabst
Host: Christian Maurice, Associate Professor in Soil Mechanics
Duration of visit: 6 weeks
Dates of visit: July - October 2022
Short biography
Thomas Pabst is a professor at the Department of Civil, Geological and Mining Engineering at Polytechnique Montréal. He is also the scientific director of the Research Institute of Mines and Environment (RIME), a joint research program created in collaboration with the University of Quebec in Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT), and six major mining companies. Prof. Pabst’s current research includes integrated mine waste management, in-pit disposal, circular economy applied to mining engineering, and effect of climate change on mine site reclamation.
Aim and scope of the visit
The objective of Prof. Pabst’s visit is to collaborate with the researchers at the division of Soil Mechanics at LTU on the evaluation of the durability of innovative materials in mining cover systems, using laboratory tests, field experiments and numerical simulations. The visit will strengthen the links between LTU and Polytechnique Montreal in the field of mining reclamation and circular economy applied to mining engineering. Prof. Pabst will be giving several seminars, a short course about numerical modelling and several field visits will be organized during his stay.

Professor Gary D. Egbert, Oregon State University, USA
Gary Egbert
Host: Maxim Smirnov, Associate Professor in Exploration Geophysics
Duration of visit: 3 weeks
Date of visit: October 2022
Short biography
Gary Egbert is a Professor at Oregon State University with degrees in Mathematics (BA), Statistics (MS) and Geophysics (PhD). Over a 35-year research career he has worked in both electromagnetic (EM) geophysics, and physical oceanography, using multivariate statistics, numerical modelling, and inverse methods. Motivated by a range of specific real world problems, from electrical conductivity of the Earth to ocean tides, he has developed 3D inversion and data assimilation methodologies that have found broader applications.
Aim and scope of the visit
The main objectives of the research visit are: to continue development of robust multivariate analysis of geophysical measurements with incomplete and missing data. Multi resolution inversion of geophysical data with geological a priori information; to prepare Geophysical modelling/inversion course material in the form of detailed lecture notes (or a monograph) for later use during teaching and research activities; to introduce LTU staff to 3-D modelling/inversion software ModEM and continue development of common 3-D modelling/inversion framework.

Tanja Leena Joona, Lappland university, Finland
Tanja Leena Joona
Host: Johan Sandström, Professor in Accounting and Control
Duration of visit: 4 weeks
Dates of visit: September 2021 - January 2022
Short biography
Tanja Joona is a Senior researcher at the Arctic Centre of the University of Lapland. She is the Finnish Institutional leader of the H2020 project JustNorth (2020-2023): Toward Just, Ethical and Sustainable Arctic Economies, Environments and Societies. Joona’s research here concentrates on wind power, mining and reindeer herding. Joona’s main interest is the Arctic region, with comparative legal and political aspects of indigenous Sámi society, dealing with traditional livelihoods, international human rights law and identity questions in the context of justice and equality."

Professor Wancheng Zhu, Northeastern University, China
Wancheng Zhu
Host: Ping Zhang, professor in Mining and Rock Engineering.
Duration of visit: 1 week
Date of visit: december 2023
Short biography
Professor Wancheng Zhu is the professor of rock mechanics and mining engineering at the Department of Mining Engineering, Northeastern University, China. In the past 20 years, he has worked in Hong Kong Polytechnic University, University of Western Australia and Ruhr University-Bochum.
His research interest includes rock damage and associated application for monitoring and predicting of mining-induced disasters. He has over 200 technical papers and is the co-author of 3 books. He has supervised 19 Ph.D. students.
Aim and scope of the visit
The aims for the proposed visit in relation to research and education are to:
- provide opportunities for researchers and Ph.D. candidates to learn the research frontier in ground control strategy in seismically active mines,
- build a platform for researchers from both universities to share ongoing experiences and ideas,
- promote academic communication by giving courses and arranging seminars, and
- build collaboration to exchange researchers and students and cooperate to educate PhD students in mining engineering.

Postdoc researcher Constantinos Vassiliades, University of Cyprus
Constantinos Vassiliades
Host: Agatino Rizzo, professor in Architecture
Duration of visit: 5 weeks
Dates of visit: september 2021 - december 2022
Short biography
Constantinos is an Architect Engineer, with a Ph.D. which deals with the building integration of active solar systems. He is a partner at the Limassol based architectural firm “Vassiliades Architects”, and a Post-Doctoral Researcher at U.Cy.. He teaches at U.Cy. and C.U.T., whilst he is a Visiting Researcher at UNI.NA.. Constantinos made publications and taught in training schools in Barcelona and Warsaw, whilst he is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board of SDEWES 16th Conference. He is one of the authors of the book "Building Integrated Solar Thermal Systems - Design and Applications Handbook".
Aim and scope of the visit
The main and general aim of the visit is to cross-reference knowledge in the broad energy subject, through scientific meetings, contacts and workshops. At the same time, the possibilities of further collaborations, both in terms of knowledge and research cooperation, is essential. This will be achieved through the workshops and lectures that will take place at the time of the visits. The creation of an appropriate network of colleagues who work and perform research on European coastal cities, would be a desirable outcome in the long run.
Updated: