Maja Fjaestad is senior advisor to the president at Karolinska Institutet. She is associate professor at the Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), is affiliated with AI Policy lab at Umeå University, and is adjunct professor at Luleå University of Technology.

Fjaestad has a background with the European Commission AI Office where she spent 2024-2025 as policy officer. She was also State Secretary for Health in Sweden during 2018-2022 and has held the same position at the Prime Minister’s office

Her research has revolved around the interplay between technology and society, as well as science to policy in crisis management. She did her post-doc at the Max Planck Institute for History of Science in Berlin, and she has spent time visiting Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
She has a strong engagement in international issues and was appointed by the European Commission to its working groups on science diplomacy in 2024.

Photo: Jesper Peterson