Assistant professor of astrophysics at Nordita in Stockholm working on various theoretical aspects of cosmic dust. Ph.D. thesis on models of dust-driven outflows from so-called "carbon stars", he began working on the enigmatic origins of cosmic dust at high redshifts. His current research activities include models of dust processing and the effects of turbulence in the interstellar medium. His interest in SETI began with a side project with the aim of estimating when the first civilisations in the Universe could have appeared and how this is related to the origins of cosmic dust.