Biography

Professor Kasper Moth-Poulsen (b. 1978-07-07) is a research leader in the field of nano-chemistry, energy storage materials and synthetic chemistry. His research activities focus on the development of methods to address single molecules and innovative technologies for solar thermal energy storage.

KMP studied organic chemistry at the University of Copenhagen where he obtained the Cand. Scient. (2003) and Ph.D. (2007) degrees under the supervision of prof. Thomas Bjørnholm. After the Ph.D. degree, he worked as a postdoc. in the Bjørnholm lab. In 2009, he continued his career abroad as a postdoctoral associate at the College of Chemistry at U.C. Berkeley, where he worked with professors Rachel Segalman and Peter Vollhardt. In 2011 KMP was recruited to Chalmers University of Technology, as an assistant professor. In 2014 he was promoted to associate professor in 2017 to professor (bitr. prof.) and in 2019 full professor. KMP is one of the founders of Chalmers Materials Analysis Laboratory. Since 2020 KMP is the head of the division of applied chemistry at Chalmers. Since October 2021 KMP is awarded a professor position at the Catalan Institute of Advanced Studies (ICREA) and joins the Institute of Materials Science of Barcelona (ICMAB-CSIC) as a professor.

KMP has attended several extended courses in teaching, supervision and leadership, including a ´ leadership program offered to newly appointed faculty at Chalmers recruited through the AoA initiative lead by Peter Lysell, a leadership program lead by the former rector of Chalmers Jan-Eric Sundgren offered for recipients of the SSF future leaders grant, and is currently attending a program for recipients of the Wallenberg Academy Fellow grant, lead by Wallenberg academy fellows lead by prof. Sven Lidin (Lund)

KMP leads a research group of approximately 10 PhD students and post docs and a number of bachelors, masters and visiting students.

KMP associate editor of Journal of Materials Chemistry C, and Materials Advances. He is a frequent reviewer for major publishers such as Nature, ACS, RSC and Wiley. KMP has also reviewed for various funding agencies, including, the Swedish Research Council (VR), the German Research Foundation (DFG), the ACS Petroleum Research Fund, the US Department of Energy (DOE), the European research council (ERC), the Swiss National Research Council (SNF), the Chilean Research Council (FONDECYT) and the Dutch Research Council (NWO).

​KMP is active in several start-ups and spin-out companies from his research group, including Con-Science AB, Solartes AB and NanoScientifica Scandinavica AB.

Research interest

• Molecular Solar Thermal Energy Storage Systems.

In a future society with limited access to fossil fuels, technologies for efficient on demand delivery of renewable energy are highly desirable. In this regard, methods that allow for solar energy storage and on demand solar driven power generation are particularly relevant since the sun is the most abundant energy source. Molecular photoswitches so-called molecular solar thermal storage systems can capture solar energy and release it on demand in an emission free closed energy cycle. The objective of the project is to improve and extend the concept of molecular solar thermal energy storage towards future applications.

• Nanoparticle Systems.

By decreasing the size of metal particles down to the nanoscale, more atoms are exposed to the crystalline facets (larger surface area), which is encompassed by their rearrangement in restrained geometrical space. We employ a combination of top-down and bottom-up approaches as well as modern synthesis techniques such as flow chemistry, machine learning and automation to prepare complex shaped nanoparticles for use in sensing and catalysis applications