Agnes Thornberg

Agnes Thornberg is from Helsingborg, Sweden and is planning to major in Mechanical Engineering with a minor in Sustainable Engineering.

Agnes began her journey into the STEM world early. On her eighth birthday she received a book titled, “How Things Work”, making her realize that she felt most fulfilled when she understood how the things in her surroundings functioned. This was further established in High School as she realized that the STEM subjects perfectly described the world around her, how the smallest forces and systems affect the whole. This resulted in her applying to the Research Academy for Young Scientists where she was accepted and spent a summer at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm conducting research on how a periodically poled substrate of lithium niobate affected the positioning of quantum dots. This experience landed her the position of the Science Committee at her high school where she worked with inspiring and helping other STEM students to apply to research schools as well as preparing students for final exams in STEM subjects.

Agnes spent five years of her childhood in South East Asia, which she believes has set the context for her future studies and endeavors. Having being exposed at an early age to how different the world looks she has realized that she wants to combine her love for STEM with her ambition to make a global impact. Upon graduating Agnes took a gap year and traveled alone to Jakarta, Indonesia to pursue an internship at a company that worked with PV installations. Here Agnes not only learnt more in depth about different sustainable energy technologies, but she further developed the context in which she wishes to work in. By meeting people in a part of the world that is very different from her home, she has learned the attitude that is needed in order to implement technologies that are needed to improve the health of our planet.

Outside of school Agnes has pursued competitive dancing, where she has competed at a national and international level. She is also very fond of singing in the shower and hopes that she can combine this with her love for standing on stage (with clothes on of course)!