The Board of the Geological Society has decided to award the 2020 Jan Bergström Prize for young promising researchers in earth sciences to Stefan Andersson, Uppsala University. The prize is awarded to young geoscientists who have already made significant contributions to the geosciences early in their scientific careers.
Stefan defended his dissertation in 2019 at the University of Helsinki on a completely new type of mineralization with rare earth elements (REE) in Olserum in northern Småland. In his work, entitled “Formation of hydrothermal REE phosphate deposits”, he investigated and characterized this mineralized system, which together with Norra Kärr constitute two of the most important REE mineralizations in Europe. The dissertation has already resulted in several peer review papers in highly ranked international journals. He has also earlier in his career attracted attention for outstanding scientific work. For instance, he received SveMin’s Jan Kempe Prize for the best MSc thesis in 2014 for his work concerning Zn-Pb-(Ag) mineralisations in the Hornkullen mine in Bergslagen.
Stefan, who took his MSc degree at Uppsala University, is now back at the same university working as a researcher in European projects. Despite the fact that Stefan defended his dissertation as late as last year, he has already shown a maturity as a geoscientist and researcher that makes him a worthy recipient of the Geological Society’s Jan Bergström Prize.