Professor HANS LIWÅNG

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Publications

On the page Publications you can find a list of publications and, when possible, a link to the publisher’s webpage and / or a PDF of the full text article.

Biography for Hans Liwång

Professor and Deputy Head of Department, Department of Systems Science for Defence and Security, Swedish Defence University, and
Researcher at the KTH Centre for Naval Architecture, KTH – Royal Institute of Technology.

Research

Liwång performs applied multi-disciplinary research related to total defence risk governance, especially in the intersection of topics such as infrastructure protection, maritime security, societal resilience, cyber security, and maritime engineering. This multifaceted research is much needed to complement more traditional discipline specific research. For these challenges “not having a ready-made single disciplinary perspective is not a flaw; it is a feature”. Collaboration with faculty from other subjects and co-production with practitioners outside academia have an important role for the research and heightens both the rigor and relevance.

At the Swedish Defence University and at the KTH - Royal Institute of Technology Liwång contributes to research projects commissioned by the Swedish Armed Forces, to research funded by independent national foundations and to international research programs such as the NATO SPS program. The project HEIST (Hybrid Space/Submarine Architecture Ensuring Infosec of Telecommunications) led by Cornell University is an example of multi-disciplinary research. In addition to researchers from Cornell University, researchers from Johns Hopkins University, ETH Zurich, Bifröst and the Swedish Defence University are participating along with space and maritime telecommunications companies and government representatives from several NATO countries. A testbed for the project will be developed at Blekinge Institute of Technology (BTH). The work package led by Liwång focuses on the situational awareness required to make well-balanced decisions about how data traffic should be sent between civilian and military parties.

Outside academia

Outside academia Liwång contributes as an engineer, expert and speaker in technology development and development of safety and security especially with the aim to complement traditional, and often shortsighted or one-sided, perspectives. This work is often organized through LNAK AB, a small independent technical consultancy company. The areas of business are mainly Operational Analysis, Risk Management, Safety and Quality Analysis, System Design and Technical Calculations. The company also has many years of experience in areas that are outside traditional prescriptive design and building norms (e.g., floating building and salvage).

Liwång also makes regular national and international media appearances as an expert. Typically, at least a couple of requests per week and Liwång has approximately 800 national mentions per year and a total reach of about 60 million per year (numbers from AllEars media analysis 2022). Topics include the attack on Nord Stream, technology development in relation to the war in Ukraine, drone development, threats and risks related to infrastructure incidents and sabotage, and international piracy and maritime security.

Background

Professor in Systems Science for Defence and Security and Docent in Military-Technology at the Swedish Defence University, Ph.D. in Shipping and Marine Technology from Chalmers University of Technology and holds a M.Sc. degree in Naval Architecture from the KTH – Royal Institute of Technology. More than twenty years of experience as an engineer and lecturer at the Swedish Defence University, the Royal Institute of Technology, Chalmers University of Technology and the Defence Materiel Administration.