Karin Markides

Karin Markides, born 1951, is a Swedish professor in analytical chemistry and President and CEO of Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology from 1 June 2023.

Markides completed her doctorate degree at Stockholm University 1984 with the thesis Organosiloxanes containing cyano groups for capillary chromatography.

Following this she started her research career at Brigham Young University in Utah, USA, first as a postdoc, and later as research assistant and associate director.

In May 1990 she returned to Sweden as a professor at Uppsala University.

She is also board member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences since 1992 and a board member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences since 1999.

From 2004 to 2006 she was vice director general for Vinnova.

Fourteen years later, in May 2004, she was employed as vice director general of Vinnova, the Swedish innovation agency.

She was also the President and CEO of Chalmers University of Technology from 2006 to 2015.

Markides has been chairman of the Scientific Council for Sustainable Development under the Swedish government (vetenskapliga rådet för hållbar utveckling) since 2015.

The council's mission is to give evidence-based, concrete suggestions for development of financial, ecological, cultural and social sustainability for the government's longterm sustainability vision.

Markides has received several awards and distinctions, among others:

Professor Markides holds the following patents:

She was the president of American University of Armenia from 1 July 2019 to 31 May 2023.