Eva Olsson (born 12 October 1960) is a Swedish physicist who is a professor at

Chalmers University of Technology Chalmers University of Technology ( sv, Chalmers tekniska högskola, often shortened to Chalmers) is a Swedish university located in Gothenburg that conducts research and education in technology and natural sciences at a high international level ...

. She is a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

and part of the selection committee for the

Nobel Prize in Physics ) , image = Nobel Prize.png , alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...

Early life and education

Olsson was an undergraduate student in

Gothenburg Gothenburg (; abbreviated Gbg; sv, Göteborg ) is the second-largest city in Sweden, fifth-largest in the Nordic countries, and capital of the Västra Götaland County. It is situated by the Kattegat, on the west coast of Sweden, and has ...

at the

, where she specialised in engineering physics. She worked on mirror furnaces for her undergraduate diploma. After graduating, she remained at Chalmers and started a doctoral research project studying the interfacial structures of zinc oxide varistor materials. She moved to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

as a researcher with

David R. Clarke David R. Clarke is a material scientist and the inaugural Extended Tarr Family Professor of Material Science and Applied Physics at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS). He is the principal investigator of ...

at IBM. She returned to the Chalmers University of Technology in 1991, where she was eventually awarded her docent degree.

Research and career

Olsson was appointed associate professor at Chalmers in 1996. She was appointed professor at

Uppsala University Uppsala University ( sv, Uppsala universitet) is a public university, public research university in Uppsala, Sweden. Founded in 1477, it is the List of universities in Sweden, oldest university in Sweden and the Nordic countries still in opera ...

a year later, where she worked for four years before returning to Chalmers as a full professor. At Chalmers, Olsson has served as Director of Material Analysis, Head of Microscopy and Head of Applied Physics. Olsson develops novel characterisation techniques for materials. She is mainly interested in materials for emerging technologies, including catalysis, photovoltaic and quantum devices. In particular, Olsson works with electron microscopy. In 2013, Olsson was awarded from the

Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation (KAW) ( sv, Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftelse) is a Swedish public and private foundation formed in 1917 by Knut Agathon Wallenberg and his wife Alice Wallenberg. It was created to support research in the n ...

, with which she developed soft microscopy. Soft microscopy involves developing ways to use

electron microscope An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of accelerated electrons as a source of illumination. As the wavelength of an electron can be up to 100,000 times shorter than that of visible light photons, electron microscopes have a hi ...

s to study soft and semi-hard materials, creating new avenues for advances in material science. When characterising gold using an electron microscope at the highest level of magnification, it was discovered that they could force gold to melt at room temperature. The initial discovery was made by Ludvig de Knoop who was a researcher in her group. He noticed that the surface of gold lost its bonds under the bombardment with electrons within an electron microscope. Knoop and Olsson were among those who wrote the paper for the journal '' Physical Review Materials'' in 2018. Olsson could see applications of this phenomenon for sensors and transistors. In 2018, she was awarded a further to study plasmon-exciton coupling. Olsson is a member of the

Selection Committee. When men won all of the science Nobel prizes in 2021, Olsson said "We want to have more women nominated".

Selected publications

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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Olsson, Eva Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Academic staff of the Chalmers University of Technology Swedish women physicists 1960 births Living people