The Battery Safety Conference 2026

Ilka von Dalwigk joined Recharge as Director General in 2024. She has previously been working as Policy and Market Intelligence Manager at EIT Innoenergy with the industrial development programme of the EBA since its launch 2017 with a strong focus on sustainability and supply chain topics. She has been instrumental in building up and managing the vast and complex network of key stakeholder along the battery value chain, as well as developing the set of initial recommendations that contributed to make the EU a key player in the global battery market. In 2024 Ilka has been awarded the Battery Star Award by the BEPA for her longstanding contribution to the battery sector.

Nate Sauer is a research engineer at the UL Research Institute's Fire Safety Research Institute (FSRI) and holds a PhD in Fire Protection Engineering from Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI). At FSRI, Nate works on battery fire research, including full-scale electric-vehicle burn and suppression experiments, explosion hazards from battery thermal runaway gas, e-mobility device failures in commuter railcars, and safe disposal and energy dissipation of fire-damaged batteries.

Adrian Herrmann, M.Sc. is a researcher at PEM, associated with RWTH Aachen university. He is responsible for the field of sodium-ion battery technology, which is focused on cell engineering and battery testing, including power and abuse tests. Recent advancements are the benchmarking of state-of-art battery cells and the evaluation of safety hazards. The key objective is to understand Thermal Runaway behaviour, its causes and possible prevention methods.

Insurance professional with a background from Construction industry, Risk Consultancy, Security and Risk Engineering. Currently heading the Swedish Risk Engineer team of 14 Engineers out of the total 52 in If Insurance. Energy and Sustainability are key drivers in Andreas work and also a topic of great interest for him. In Insurance they are constantly trying to support and provide covers for their clients during their green transition and decarbonization. Being in the frontline of technical development is necessary to understand the world they insure.

Bernd works in the development and validation of battery systems, with several years of experience in thermal runaway and safety testing. His expertise spans battery fire testing from cell level to full system, across scales up to MWh installations. He has been involved in several projects from early-stage concept development through certification. With a background in engineering and science, Bernd brings an analytical and scientifically grounded approach to testing.

Carina works as Plant Manager for Battery Recycling Centre at Stena Recycling, based in Halmstad. The plant processes and recycles used lithium-ion batteries (such as those from electric vehicles), with an initial capacity of up to 10,000 tons per year. Now we are 45 people working on the plant, in two shifts. BRC have tree focus areas: safe work environment, operational efficiency and sustainability.

Fride finished her PhD on Li-ion battery technology at the University of Tulsa, USA, in 2005 and have worked with battery technology for more than 20 years. For 11 years she lead the battery research group at NTNU in Trondheim, with focus on materials development and advanced materials and electrochemical characterization. Since 2019 Fride have worked at SINTEF Energy, with focus on larger battery cells, modules and systems, thermal behavior and battery safety. For the past 5 years she have coordinated SINTEF's corporate efforts on batteries.

Guiomar Hernández is currently an Assistant Professor at the Department of Chemistry - Ångström at Uppsala University. She obtained her Ph.D. degree in Applied Chemistry and Polymeric Materials at the University of the Basque Country in 2017 and was appointed Docent in Chemistry in 2022. Her research interests include polymeric materials and electrolytes for safe and sustainable next-generation batteries.

Jessica Helldén is a Sustainability and HSE manager at Ingrid Capacity and has been part of the company since its founding. With a background in early-stage project management, she specialises in permitting, regulatory processes, and integrating sustainability and HSE principles into operations. Jessica leads sustainability and safety initiatives at Ingrid.

Jonna Hynynen, PhD, is a Project Manager at Chalmers Industriteknik, leading research in advanced materials and safe, sustainable energy applications. She earned her PhD from Chalmers University of Technology in 2019. After completing a postdoc, she worked at RISE’s Fire and Safety department before joining Chalmers Industriteknik.

With a background in emergency services and extensive operational experience in roles such as Incident Commander and Duty Fire Chief, Kristoffer Gottlieb now works with strategic development within the Greater Gothenburg Fire and Rescue Services. Kristoffer’s work focuses on long-term, future-oriented initiatives aimed at strengthening emergency preparedness, operational capability, and organizational resilience. His work involves bridging operational practice with strategic planning to ensure that the fire and rescue service is equipped to meet evolving challenges. In his role within the fire and rescue services, Kristoffer has had the opportunity to contribute to the development of the research report that will be presented in Gothenburg.

I am an Industrial PhD student at TU Graz and a Thermal Engineer at Rimac Technology in Zagreb, Croatia. My work and research focus on thermal runaway propagation modelling in lithium-ion batteries, combining experimental data with advanced simulation tools. Besides that, I am responsible for development and analysis of thermal management systems for high-performance electric vehicles that Rimac Technology is the supplier to. My work bridges academia and industry, with interests spanning battery safety, heat transfer, and model-based engineering.

Ola Willstrand is a research scientist in the Department of Fire and Safety at RISE Research Institutes of Sweden. He is focusing on battery safety and has a lot of experience from laboratory fire tests, from small-scale to full-scale. He holds a Master of Science degree in Engineering Physics from Lund University and a Licentiate degree in Material Chemistry from Uppsala University.

Riku Honkoaho is a specialist in product and functional safety topics with over eight years of experience in the battery industry, while being also active member on various standardization committees. At Ioncor Oy, he focuses on ensuring the safety, reliability, and robustness of advanced battery solutions designed for demanding and mission-critical applications. Riku has a strong emphasis on risk prevention, regulatory compliance, and safe-by-design principles. Through close collaboration with engineering and industrial partners, he supports the development of safe e-mobility and energy storage solutions that contribute to sustainable innovation and improved safety standards.

Robert Eriksen Jacobsen is the Founder and CEO of EPTTAS, specializing in data-driven solutions for battery safety and electric transportation. Having founded several technology companies, he bring expertise in applying data and AI to mobility and energy systems. At EPTTAS, their focus is solving electrification’s blind spot — while electrification is transforming transport, logistics, and energy storage, safety has not kept pace. They use advanced analytics to close that gap and make electrification safer and more sustainable.

Over the past five years, Samuel has been an important contributor in supporting Boliden’s transition toward electrified mining machinery and in advancing automation initiatives, helping to strengthen safety and sustainability in mining operations.

After studying Marine Engineering at the Delft University of Technology, Syb joined the R&D department at Damen Shipyards where he performed research on the aging of batteries in electric vessels, developed a battery sizing and selecting method and worked on the design of many different types of battery powered vessels. In 2021 he joined the Maritime Battery Forum as managing director, focusing on the promotion of batteries in the maritime industry and supporting the sector with all battery related challenges.

Tobias has 16 years of experience in the field of product certification. Since 2017, he has been focusing specifically on the certification of battery systems. In this context, Tobias has gained in-depth knowledge of key standards such as UL 1973, UL 2580, UL 9540 and UL 9540A. His work is centered around developing practical solutions that align regulatory requirements with the technical and commercial needs of the industry.

Truls is co-founder and Director of Strategy for Elinor, and ran the partnering process to find and sign Elinors strategic tech partner. Truls has a background spanning from business intelligence in DNB to strategy advisor for Norwegian municipalities, Industrial Clusters and trade organizations. Truls holds an MSc in Industrial Design Engineering and BSc of Informatics from NTNU, where he now teaches Strategic Design for executives. He serves as Vice President on the UpCell Board of Directors.