We welcome Oscar Gustafsson - our first PhD-student!
Oscar Gustafsson was attracted to pursue PhD-studies within the Mistra Mineral Governance programme since he for a long time wanted to become a scientist. The PhD position presented an opportunity to continue research on very similar questions to those he explored in his thesis. He will join the researchers in work package one, focusing on supply chain systems of raw materials.
He has studied environmental engineering at LTH, attaining his degree just before starting the PhD position.
In his work, Oscar Gustafsson is driven by curiosity and a thirst for knowledge, and he likes to learn and understand things, or at least try to, an aspiration a research career feeds very well into.
– My research will focus mainly on the resource level of issues related to critical raw materials, exploring key concepts such as substitutability and criticality as well as hopefully broadening these terms. The first article I am working on will focus on said terms in regard to current and future technologies employed in EV batteries. In the future I hope to be able to write something about the by-product nature of many critical raw materials.
– I hope my research will simultaneously broaden and clarify the criticality concept (clarification or standardization is sorely needed) and give some insight into which materials are actually critical and why/for which applications, so that informed decisions can be made.
When reflecting on the future of sustainable raw materials, he says:
– Even though I am at the start of my PhD research, I am already quite certain that carefully planning our mineral usage is as, if not more, important as finding new ore deposits to exploit. This planning for the future would have to at least include a reduction in resource usage where it is not strictly necessary, substitution of critical materials with less critical ones where possible, and much improved recycling efficiency.