Linus Brander

Background

About Linus Brander

I grew up on a picturesque farm, on a woody island of bedrock in a sea of clay, wheat and oat. My interests as youngster, even during the years on natural science program at High-school, were mostly in literature, history and archeology. However, when leaving the countryside for university in the autumn of the natural science faculty became my natural habitat. I got hooked on both Geology and Chemistry, leaving with degrees in both. After graduation I began my PhD work, concerning the building (magmatism) and reconstruction (metamorphism and deformation) of the southwestern Fennoscandian continental crust. The cooperation with other scientists and use of a range of methods, such as reconnaissance field-work, U-Pb geochronology, geochemistry, P-T-modelling and EBSD-studies on deformation microstructures, resulted in seven strong papers. Spicing up the PhD years, most of the late spring to early autumn seasons were spent as field-geologist for the Geological Survey of Sweden. After disertation I worked a year as temporary lecturer at Göteborg University, teaching mineralogy, crystallography, geochemistry and petrology. However, when offered a position as scientist at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden (then CBI), I left University after 13 stimulating years. At RISE, my work concerned geological materials and derivatives thereof, including aggregates, natural stone, industrial minerals, slag and foundry sand, and recycling, reuse and alternatives for these. Focus was generally to utilize the mineralogical, chemical and physical properties of the raw or industrial rest materials, for the optimal application or action, e.g, in concrete or as alternative binder. Another part of the work was on Critical Raw Materials, usually from a system and value-chain perspective (e.g, mapping and assessment of supply-chain disruption risks). After 12,5 years at RISE, I felt a need to do something different, luckily at the same time a position got available at Swerock. Here, my role is in the R&D team with focus on raw material supply, where I work with business intelligence, research and development projects, and technical support to the production and laboratory organizations. I really thrive in this role, since it "picks the cherries" from all my previous dedications - from geology and chemistry, via doctoral studies and SGU, to RISE. Coming from philosophical faculty, I’m also time and again delighted over how important that deeper “for its own sake”-knowledge is in the applied domains, in research institute as well as in industry!