Celebrating 25 years as a researcher!
- Post by: Tobias Larsson
- 6th April 2026
- No Comment
A personal reflection april 6 2026, 25 years since my PhD defense.
Today marks exactly 25 years since I defended my PhD thesis on multibody dynamic simulation in product development at Luleå University of Technology. April 6, 2001. A young engineer from Karlskrona (or more precisely Jämjö), educated at Mid Sweden University in Örnsköldsvik, and Luleå University of Technology, standing in front of the opponent Professor Jan-Gunnar Persson and an examination board in northern Sweden, trying to convince them that simulation could fundamentally change how we design and develop products. If you’re curious (or brave), the defense is still on YouTube.
Twenty-five years later, I can honestly say: the journey has been far more exiting, and challenging, than anything I imagined that day, and I am proud of the work I’ve done with my team of colleagues.
The beginning: From simulation to innovation (2001–2005)
Right after defending, I crossed the Atlantic, as a postdoc. A stint as Visiting Scholar at the University of Michigan’s Optimal Design Laboratory and as Research Scientist at Ford Advanced Engineering, Ford Motors in Detroit, gave me an early taste of how academic research and industrial practice can collide, and create sparks. I learnt that the two should go hand in hand, and since then the applied research close to industrial situations has been my home area. Back in Luleå again I continued as a researcher within Division of Computer Aided Design, under the guidance of the inspiring and entreprenuerial Professor Lennart Karlsson, increasingly fascinated not just by how to simulate, but by why and for whom we develop products in the first place.
By 2005, I had earned my Docent title via lecturing, research, supervision and attracting funding. The seed of something bigger was planted: what if we stopped thinking about products in isolation and started thinking about the entire system of products, services, and experiences, the function that the combined solution shall deliver? Functional products, product-service systems, integrated solutions, through life commitments. Something that today 20 years later is happening but then seemed far away.
Building something from nothing (2006–2011)
These were the foundational years. At Luleå University of Technology, I became chaired Professor and Head of Division for Functional Product Development, building a team with likeminded, that grew until we were some 30 people. We secured major funding, launched international collaborations, and we co-developed, and establish the Faste Laboratory – a VINN Excellence Centre for Functional Product Innovation backed by VINNOVA, where I was the named incoming center director. We also co-founded the Design for Wellbeing initiative together with Stanford University and Hosei University in Japan, a collaboration that is on and off, but still a theme in student projects. The idea was simple but radical: design should ultimately serve human wellbeing, not just market demand.
During this period, we were deeply involved in European aerospace through projects like VIVACE – Value Improvement through a Virtual Aeronautical Collaborative Enterprise (one of the largest EU FP6 projects at the time) and CRESCENDO – Collaborative and Robust Engineering using Simulation Capability Enabling Next Design Optimisation, working with industry giants on knowledge-enabled engineering and simulation in the aerospace sector. This was where the “core people” I still work with was found; Marco Bertoni, a PhD candidate at the time in Italy, now professor and colleague at BTH. His brother Alessandro. Andreas Larsson, my brother, and also colleague and pro vice-chancellor at BTH and sometimes he comes down to us regular people and shows that he is still a great researcher in our team, Christian Johansson Askling, master thesis student at the time, now a researcher at BTH and responsible for our educational offer, and many more.
Coming back to Blekinge (2011–2018)
In 2011, I moved back to my roots, Blekinge, joining Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH) as Professor of Mechanical Engineering, after deciding to leave LTU on the day of my 15th anniversary there, doing a short stint as Guest Professor at Lund University, Department of Design Sciences. I got free hands and began leading the Product Development Research Lab (PDRL) inside Department of Mechanical Engineering, which has since grown into a vibrant environment of around 15 academic partners and 40 industrial collaborators.
A pivotal milestone was launching the BTH–KK Foundation Research Profile in Model-Driven Development and Decision Support (MD3S), a 108 MSEK initiative running from 2013 to 2022. This was about building what I call the “engineering toolbox 2.0”; innovation, integrating simulation, AI, and knowledge-based systems to help organizations innovate within greener, more resource-efficient environments.
In 2014, I was appointed Dean of the Faculty of Engineering Sciences at BTH, a role I held until 2018. Balancing research leadership with faculty-wide responsibilities was demanding, but it gave me a perspective on how research, education, and societal engagement are deeply intertwined. Ultimately, I left that administrative position to again focus on my research on full time.
Broadening the horizon (2018–2023)
With the KK Foundation Research Profile secured for extension, the lab grew in ambition. New frontiers emerged: electrification, autonomous vehicles, digital twins, virtual production, and extended reality. We launched the Virtual Production Studio Lab, where the movie and gaming industry meets traditional manufacturing. We collaborate across EU borders in the RESIST project on climate resilience. We support growing needs of resilience in conflict times with DISTURB and digital evacuation planning, and many more research projects in the portfolio.
At the same time, the research became increasingly focused on what matters most: sustainability. Product-Service System (PSS) Innovation became the unifying thread; the idea that products, services, and software must be designed together, throughout their lifecycle, to deliver real value while respecting planetary boundaries, and we address this with digital tools and methods to know, and plan, before we build.
The present and what lies ahead (2024–)
Today, as Chaired Professor in Mechanical Engineering at BTH and director of PDRL, I lead or contribute to a portfolio of projects; from AI Factory Blekinge to Digitalt Kulturarv Sydost, from next-generation subsea cable production to NATO innovation programs. Recent additions include CiSMA (Circular Steel for Mass Market Applications, EU Horizon), AXESS (XR for sustainable solutions), and CONVERGE II on electrified construction.
The threads are now converging. Physical AI is bringing intelligence into the materials and machines themselves. Digital twins have gone from research concept to industrial deployments. Immersive environments are changing how teams evaluate and make decisions together. And simulation-driven product development (the very topic of my PhD 25 years ago) is more central than ever, only now we are not just predicting how a single product behaves, but how entire systems can be designed smarter and more sustainable from the start.
Some numbers have accumulated along the way:
- Supervisor/examiner on 33 PhD theses and 35 licentiate theses.
- Part of 150+ peer-reviewed publications.
- Over 1 billion SEK in research funding secured (total project volume exceeding 3.2 billion SEK).
- 10 PhD students currently under supervision.
- Collaborations spanning 40+ industrial partners and 15+ academic institutions worldwide.
But the numbers only tell part of the story.
What I’ve actually learned
Research is a team sport. I draw deep inspiration from team sports and growing up playing hockey, and also doing it at elite level in 2nd Swedish league, and then being chairman of the board of Karlskrona HK where I’ve had the odd experience of being in our three top leagues; SHL, HockeyAllsvenskan, and HockeyEttan, I learnt the idea that shared purpose and trust drive performance. And it is more fun doing it with a team than alone, and it also improves performance!
Every PhD student I’ve supervised, every project partner I’ve worked with, every industrial collaborator who took a leap of faith on an unproven idea, every funding body that trusted me/us with their funding, they are the real story of these 25 years.
Bridging worlds matters more than perfecting one. My career has consistently been about connecting: academia and industry, simulation and design, products and services, Sweden and the world. The most impactful work has always happened in the spaces between disciplines.
Follow your curiosity, even when it seems impractical. From vehicle dynamics to e-health. From aerospace engines to lunar mining. From product development to wellbeing design. The thread that connects it all is a deep belief that innovation and engineering can, and should, serve a better future.
Play the long game. The Faste Laboratory took years to build. The KK Foundation Research Profile was a decade-long commitment. PDRL also. Meaningful change doesn’t come from short-term projects; it comes from sustained vision and stubborn optimism, saying “yes” even when you do not know how to approach the problem, and staying positive when negativity arise is a key thing.
Reflection
Looking back at these 25 years, what strikes me most is not any single achievement, but the accumulation of trust. Trust from PhD students who chose to spend years of their lives working on problems I believed in. Trust from industrial partners who opened their doors and shared real challenges, not sanitised versions of them. Trust from funding agencies who bet on ideas that did not yet have proof.
Am I proud? Yes. Proud of the lab we have built, proud of every student who has grown through our work together, proud that research born in Blekinge now reaches across continents and into domains I could never have predicted when I stood in that lecture hall in Luleå a quarter of a century ago. But pride is not the same as satisfaction, because the work is far from done. The challenges ahead, climate, resilience, digitalization are bigger than anything we have tackled so far, and they demand exactly the kind of boundary-crossing, long-term, team-based research that these 25 years have taught me to believe in.
If hockey taught me anything, it is that you celebrate the goal, but then you skate back to centre ice and get ready for the next face-off. So that is what I intend to do.
To everyone who has been part of this journey; my family, friends, students, colleagues, partners, thank you! Could not have done it without you!
Here’s to whatever the next 25 years might bring, as this is my passion and interest, and not a job that ends in retirement 😉
Tobias Larsson
Professor of Mechanical Engineering
Blekinge Institute of Technology