”Seeing the first stack test. It looked like Rivus was building something real.”
That was the moment Dr. Eduardo Maurina Morais decided to join Rivus.
Earlier this year, Eduardo stepped into the role of Head of R&D. As we enter the next phase of our R&D and scale-up journey, with new equity investment and grant funding in place, we wanted to share the story behind the appointment - and reflect on the contributions that led him to this role.
When Eduardo joined Rivus in January 2024, he had originally planned to continue in academia after completing his PhD in Materials Science at Chalmers University of Technology.
Instead, he took a chance on the uncertainty (and opportunity) of a small deep-tech startup.
Since then, Eduardo has helped build an important part of the R&D foundation that Rivus stands on today.
First, he helped transform a former physiotherapy office into Rivus’ first small in-house wet lab and battery lab. He then played an important role in establishing our current ~300 m² facilities, including wet-lab space, battery-testing infrastructure, analytical chemistry and 3D-printing capabilities. Along the way, he has also helped develop new chemistries, worked closely with suppliers and mentored Rivus’ growing team of chemists and engineers.
As Eduardo puts it: ”It's been a journey.”
- ”The early days were all about creativity and finding the simplest and fastest possible solutions with limited resources. As we’ve grown, the focus has shifted towards building processes, reproducible testing, and training and building the team”.
Working closely with our CEO and founder, Dr. Cedrik Wiberg, Eduardo has played a central role in turning ideas into experiments, experiments into data, and data into technology that is moving steadily towards commercialization.
One thing that stands out when talking to Eduardo is how often he mentions mentorship.
- ”I love teaching and helping others learn. Someone once took the time to teach me, and now I want to pay it forward. To me, that's a core part of science.”
As Rivus has grown from a handful of people to a growing deep-tech startup, much of Eduardo's role has evolved alongside it - from building the lab and running experiments himself to spending more time enabling others to succeed.
- ”Coming from a PhD background, I've had to really learn to let go and delegate more and focus on where my time creates the most value. That allows others to grow faster while I focus on other challenges”.
And if you're an ambitious chemist wondering whether a startup is the right place to grow, Eduardo's answer is simple:
- ”Hell yes. There is a lot of room to grow quickly and the breadth of experience is incomparable to academia or larger companies.”
Congratulations, Eduardo. We're excited to continue building with you as Head of R&D as we take the next steps towards scale-up and commercialization.
