Picture Credit: Thor Balkhed
Professor Simone Fabiano at Linköping University is one of the recipients of the 2026 Göran Gustafsson Prize, one of Sweden’s most prestigious awards for young researchers. Fabiano, who is also affiliated with WISE, received the prize in chemistry “for the development of innovative methods for doping organic semiconductors”.
Each of the five prize winners receives SEK 8.1 million, including SEK 300,000 as a personal award and SEK 7.8 million to support research over three years.
— I’m very honored to receive the Göran Gustafsson Prize. For me, it recognizes the work my research group has carried out over many years to understand and control doping in organic semiconductors. I hope it will help us push this research further and develop new types of soft, flexible electronics, says Simone Fabiano.
Flexible materials for future electronics
Semiconductors are essential components in modern electronics such as smartphones, sensors, and solar cells. While most are made from silicon, researchers are increasingly exploring semiconductors made of plastics (also called conjugated polymers). These materials can be more flexible and easier to process using more resource-efficient methods.
Controlling conductivity through chemistry
To improve the conductivity of a semiconductor, its electrical properties must be modified through a process known as doping. In organic semiconductors, this typically involves adding molecules that transfer electrical charge to the material, a process that can be difficult to control.
Prof. Fabiano’s research focuses on developing new chemical strategies to control doping reactions in conjugated polymers. His team has demonstrated catalytic and light-driven approaches that enable conductivity to be tuned under mild and more sustainable conditions.
These advances help expand the possibilities of organic electronics and support Fabiano’s ongoing research within WISE to develop sustainable electronic materials for energy technologies, sensors, and printed electronics.
About the Göran Gustafsson Prize
The Göran Gustafsson Prize has been awarded annually since 1991 in mathematics, physics, chemistry, molecular biology, and medicine. Candidates are nominated by Swedish universities and evaluated by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, with final selections made by the Göran Gustafsson Foundation for Research in Natural Sciences and Medicine.
To qualify, recipients must be under 45 years old and conduct most of their research in Sweden.
To know more about Prof. Simone Fabiano’s research at WISE visit:
Fluorine-free conducting polymer binders for high-performance lithium-ion batteries
and
Water-based n-type conductive polymer inks