Visiting researchers

Karen Hudson-Edwards

Professor, Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter, U.K.

Host: Lena Alakangas, Professor, Applied Geochemistry, SBN

Duration of visit: 1 month

Estimated dates of visit: 7-14 June 2025, 10-17 January 2026, 11-18 April 2026, one week in September 2026

Short biography

Karen Hudson-Edwards is Professor in Sustainable Mining at the Camborne School of Mines, University of Exeter. She has had over 30 years’ experience working on mine waste environmental impacts and remediation, critical minerals, sustainable mining and circular economy. She has supervised over 35 PhD and MSc students, published > 150 research papers and been awarded > £5 million of grants awarded. In 2022 she was named one of ‘100 Global Inspirational Women in Mining (WIM100)’ by Women in Mining.

Aim and scope of the visit

The aim of the visit is to develop a SUN (LTU) – Camborne School of Mines Critical Minerals Collaboration. During the visit, plants will be made to (a) publish joint landmark papers in critical minerals that set new agendas for research and impact; (b) train high-quality scientists and engineers to fill critical mineral roles in industry, academia and government; (c) work in Sweden and the UK to help build resilient supplies of critical minerals for these countries and their global partners.

Dimitra Zarafeta

Post-doctoral Researcher and Junior Group Leader, "Alexander Fleming" Biomedical Sciences Research Center, Athens, Greece

Host: Io Antonopoulou, Associate Professor, Biochemical Process Engineering, SBN

Duration of visit: 1 month

Estimated dates of visit: 1-15 June 2025, 15-30 September 2025

Short biography

Dimitra Zarafeta is a Chemical Engineer with a PhD in Chemical Engineering and Biotechnology from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece. Currently a Post-doctoral Researcher and Junior Group Leader at the "Alexander Fleming" Institute, she develops high-throughput screening methods and tools to leverage metagenomic analysis for novel enzyme discovery, targeting sustainable industrial applications and bioremediation. Dr. Zarafeta has authored numerous publications, has supervised numerous students working on the field and has contributed and led to diverse research projects involving academic and industrial partners focusing on biocatalytic applications.

Aim and scope of the visit

This visit aims to establish a new research line in bio- recovery of rare earth elements (REEs) using proteins and bacteria, combining the expertise of LTU's BPE group and the expertise of Dr. Zarafeta and her group in protein/enzyme discovery for targeted applications. The scope of the project is the discovery of REE binding proteins and REE uptaking bacteria towards the development of REE recovery applications. This collaboration strongly aligns with SUN principles, focusing on the utilization of ore assets for a green transition in the mining industry.

Solomon Asante-Okyere

Host: Michael Försth, Professor, Structural Engineering, SBN
Duration of visit: 3 months
Estimated dates of visit: August 11,2025 – November 11, 2025

Short biography

Dr. Solomon Asante-Okyere is a Lecturer in Petroleum and Natural Gas Engineering at the University of Mines and Technology, Ghana. He has a PhD in Oil and Natural Gas Engineering from the China University of Geosciences. His research explores the integration of artificial intelligence in energy systems, with a particular focus on predictive maintenance for oil/gas transport infrastructure. He also works on the characterization of geological sites for carbon and hydrogen storage, as well as the flammability and thermal behaviour of materials used in energy applications. His work aims to enhance safety, reliability, and sustainability in the transition to cleaner energy systems.

Aim and scope of the visit

The visit aims to advance research on the safe transport of hydrogen by integrating machine learning techniques to detect leaks in pipelines. It will involve data collection on hydrogen flow properties and pipeline integrity monitoring. This data will support the development of intelligent models using advanced machine learning algorithms to establish a real-time pipeline integrity monitoring technique for hydrogen transport. The initiative aligns with SUN’s strategic focus on sustainable energy transitions by promoting innovation in hydrogen infrastructure safety and knowledge exchange through publication and seminars.

Ayyoob Sharifi

Host: Agatino Rizzo, Professor, Architecture, SBN
Duration of visit: 2 months
Estimated dates of visit: August 1,2025, - September 30,2025

Short biography

Professor Ayyoob Sharifi, from Hiroshima University, is a globally recognized expert in sustainable and resilient urban development and climate change mitigation. ​ He has published over 200 peer-reviewed articles and five books, earning accolades such as the Highly Cited Researcher Award and Hiroshima University Phoenix Outstanding Researcher Award. ​ He has contributed to global initiatives like Future Earth and served as a lead author for the IPCC Sixth Assessment Report. ​ His work focuses on urban sustainability frameworks and post-SDG indicator development. ​

Aim and scope of the visit

The visit aims to advance research in sustainable urban development and natural resource management, aligning with SUN's focus on transitioning to a sustainable society. ​ The guest scholar, a leading expert in urban sustainability, will collaborate with LTU researchers through seminars, workshops, and joint publications. ​ The visit fosters multi-disciplinary collaboration, strengthens LTU's research capacity, and contributes to developing post-SDG indicators. ​ It will enhance SUN's societal impact by translating research findings into actionable policies for sustainable urban development. ​

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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

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."

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.

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.