KTH researcher received Gustafssonpriset
Jiajia Chen, docent at KTH is one of the researchers who have been awarded Gustafssonpriset. Chen is doing her research within the field of optical networks at School of Information and Communication Technology. Her research is within optical transport of information in the next generation of broadband connections, 5G and cloud technology. The award consists of a research grant of 2.5 million SEK, during three years.
Hi Jiajia and congratulations, can you shortly describe what Gustafssonpriset is?
– Göran Gustafsson Foundation is for the Promotion of Scientific Research at Uppsala University and the Royal Institute of Technology (UU / KTH). There are two types of prize for young researchers (who are not older than 36). A large one, that consists of a research grant SEK 2.5 million in total, over three years and a small one, SEK 0.5 million in total. For KTH, the funded subjects cover physics, engineering and mathematics.
How does it feel to win this award?
– I am very happy to get this fund. It really surprised me that I got the big prize the first time I applied. During the ceremony for the award this year, one reviewer (although not exactly working in the same area as me) still remembered my proposal clearly and discussed the research topic I proposed a lot with me. It is my great honor that my proposal got some attraction and recognition.
Very recently I was promoted to be Associate Professor. Now it is in the phase of my career to develop more research independence. It is really the right time to get such a fund, as it can financially support me a lot in this direction.
How will you use the prize money?
– I plan to use this fund to support my research in green optical interconnects, that can enable sustainable and scalable future data center networks. We are quite successful to receive research funding in this research direction. We already got funding from SSF and VR. This one as complementary funding to SSF and VR projects, allowing us to recruit several PhD students and/or postdocs for this research activity that I am currently leading in my lab.