Reflections on SnT

Every year the SnT community grows, with each new person bringing unique talent and perspective to our research and making our team stronger. As they join us, many find our culture and way of working distinctive. They have many stories to tell and reflecting on SnT means something different to everyone.

Bhavani Shankar

RESEARCH SCIENTIST, JOINED IN 2009

“Towards the end of my PostDoc at KTH under Prof Ottersten, I was informed about his plans to launch SnT. This looked like an exciting opportunity: we were basically going to build a center from scratch! That’s why I joined SnT.”

Gabriele Lenzini

RESEARCH GROUP HEAD, JOINED IN 2010

“At the beginning, interacting and sharing ideas was as casual as walking down the corridor or to the kitchen. Today, with SnT being so large and located on two campuses the dynamic is different, more structured; but ideas have never stopped flowing and everyone collaborates with the same enthusiasm!”

Cécile Petit

PROJECT COORDINATOR, JOINED IN 2011

“Researchers understandably focus on publications, but it’s important to remember that acquiring funding is also a big part of the job. SnT is very demand-driven and project-based, so this is even more the case here. Every year we grow, and that's always been driven from the bottom up, with lots of successful project applications, whether from the EU, FNR or industry partnerships.”

Mehrdad Sabetzadeh

SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST, JOINED IN 2012

“I hope more research centres will start to put as much emphasis as SnT does on addressing complex industrial problems.”

Tegawendé Bissyande

SENIOR RESEARCH SCIENTIST, JOINED IN 2013

“What’s special is when the needs of industry and your needs as a researcher feed into one another.”

Paulo Esteves-Veríssimo

RESEARCH GROUP HEAD, JOINED IN 2014

“SnT has been experiencing phenomenal growth, both qualitatively and quantitatively, but it hasn’t been a case of abrupt changes – there is continuity in our growth strategy.”

Serket Quintanar Guzmán

DOCTORAL RESEARCHER, JOINED IN 2015

“My most memorable moment at SnT was my first Partnership Day. We get to talk to the other researchers at SnT and meet all of our private and public partners. We still get to talk about science, but in a different, more relaxed environment.”

Jorge Augusto Meira

RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, JOINED IN 2016

“The thing that I like the most about SnT, or Luxembourg in general, is multiculturalism. It’s amazing how this impacts creativity and productivity at work, and how interesting the office atmosphere becomes.”

Marharyta Aleksandrova

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHER, JOINED IN 2017

“For me the very important thing about working here is the diversity of the people. This allows you to get a very different perspective in both your research and life in general.”

Jacek Plucinski

TECHNOLOGY TRANSFER OFFICER, JOINED IN 2018

“There are many opportunities to transform research accomplishments into licenses, products, or entire businesses. At SnT, I always tell researchers to come and see me, even if the idea sounds crazy. Let’s brainstorm first and decide on crazy later.”

Arianna Rossi

RESEARCH ASSOCIATE, JOINED IN 2019

“One of the most fascinating aspects of SnT is the spirit of collaboration between different disciplines and sectors. This allows us to discover the potential for established research methods and innovative technologies to be used in a wide range of applications: the key question is how we create and transfer this knowledge.”