Jonathan Quinson

Describe your field of work and current role 
I am a Tenure Track Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological and Chemical Engineering at Aarhus University. I work on the development and synthesis of nanomaterials. I try to understand how nanomaterials form and how they can be optimized for various applications. Examples of possible applications are energy conversion, catalysis, water/air treatment, medicine and many more.

What has your path been from starting at university until today?
I was born in France but I grew up in Africa (Ivory Coast and Cameroon) and France (Brittany). I studied in France (Lyon, Paris) and UK (London). I did my PhD in the UK (Oxford) before starting an academic career in Denmark (Copenhagen). After a short stay in the USA (Stanford) I am now leading a research group on Nanomaterials Engineering for Sustainable Technologies (NEST) in Denmark (Aarhus).  

What can be done to strengthen applied STEM research & innovation in Denmark?
I think that more open and accessible platforms for industry and academia to meet and exchange could greatly help. Examples could be match-making events, to meet new people, generate new ideas and get a chance to meet the relevant people not only because of a common network (that takes time to build) or serendipity. For example, a list of what academia is looking at, a list of what industry is looking for and/or would suggest academia to look at, to best address challenging that matter by joining forces. Maybe some sort of platform where keywords can be used to match people / groups, etc. 
Linked to this is probably the need for simpler frameworks to communicate and collaborate, share knowledge and resources more openly. In this sense, an alignment of expectation would be needed. The ‘evaluation’ criteria remain very different for Academia and Industry. There might be need to change the policies in this regard.    

What will you use your YATSI membership for? 
Being part of YATSI for me is an opportunity to meet new people and get exposed to new ideas / different ways of doing things in different fields (e.g. getting used to different ‘’languages’’). It is also a way to propose solutions to solve challenges I encountered, which might help others in the short or longer term. Finally it is also maybe a chance to have an influence on the implementation of these solutions / improvement towards solving these challenges. 

Who's the person behind the member?
A complex multi-cultural, multi-faceted, sensitive being who likes to dance.