Ellen Nordgård-Hansen graduated from in NTH in Trondheim in 1995 with a Master’s degree in Physical Chemistry. She received her PhD from the University of Leiden, the Netherlands, in 1997 with the thesis “Modelling of Aluminum Electrolysis Using Non-Equilibrium Thermodynamics”. Since then, she has worked with modelling, control and project management in various settings. Some examples from her 13 years at Prediktor in Fredrikstad are silicon refining modelling, control of the water discharge of the Vøringsfossen waterfall, multivariate analysis, and programming in C++, Matlab and Excel. Working as a project manager for introducing material tracking systems, she got acquainted with the solar cell industry, from raw material to solar cells. From 2009 to 2014 Ellen worked as a thermal designer at projectiondesign in Fredrikstad, doing in calculations, simulations and measurements related to natural and forced air convection, multi-phase cooling, thermoelectric cooling and acoustics. Ellen has been employed as a senior researcher at Teknova since 2015, working with silicon refining, magnetic field modelling, carbon paste baking and condition based maintenance.