Caisa Johansson, professor of Chemical Engineering
Caisa Johansson was born in 1973 and grew up in Forshaga. She studied on the upper secondary science programme at Sundsta in Karlstad, and then earned a Master’s Degree in Chemistry at Karlstad University College in 1997.
Caisa Johansson was employed as a doctoral student at Karlstad University College in 1998 and has since then held positions as an associate senior lecturer and a senior lecturer before being promoted to professor in 2016.
”It has been exciting to see the university grow and multiply in size, and yet we have managed to keep the close contact between students and teachers.”
Caisa Johansson’s research has primarily centred on environment-friendly water-based surface material for paper and packaging. The aim is to produce materials, which can provide protective barriers against moisture, oxygen, fats and flavours and contribute to preserving the quality of packaged goods.
”It was a coincidence that I ended up in this area. My motivation is to develop new environment-friendly solutions in a highly topical area, namely finding replacement materials for products based on non-renewable natural resources.”
The primary application area is the packaging of food and other articles. Caisa Johansson’s research area is therefore of great importance to social development since so many types of packaging are used every day. Over the years she has participated in many national and international research projects in close cooperation with researchers in other areas, with other universities and research institutes and with industrial companies in Sweden and abroad.
”Together with European research colleagues I have developed a patent barrier material, which is soon to be introduced on the market. It has been a fantastic journey, all the way from a research project, via technological and commercial verification of an innovation, to the start of a company, in which I’m active in addition to my position as a professor. I would like to explore new materials based on renewable raw materials and broaden my research to cover other application areas in need of a greener profile.”
When Caisa Johansson is not working, she enjoys being in nature, taking long walks with her dog. She is very interested in hunting and dog training and dreams of a life in the countryside…