I grew up on a picturesque small farm, on a woody island of bedrock in a sea of clay, wheat and oat. My interests as youngster, even during the years on natural science program at High-school, were mostly in the realm of literature, history and archeology. However, when leaving the countryside for university, the natural science faculty became my natural habitat. I got hooked on both Geology and Chemistry, leaving with degrees in both.After graduation I began my PhD work, concerning the building (magmatism) and reconstruction (metamorphism and deformation) of the southwestern Fennoscandian continental crust. The cooperation with other scientists and use of a range of methods, such as reconnaissance field-work, U-Pb geochronology, geochemistry, P-T-modelling and EBSD-studies of deformation microstructures, resulted in seven strong papers. Spicing up the PhD years, most of the late spring to early autumn seasons were spent as field-geologist for the Geological Survey of Sweden.After disertation I worked a year as temporary lecturer at the old department, teaching mineralogy, crystallography, geochemistry and petrology. However, when offered a position as scientist at the Swedish Cement and Concrete Research Institute (then CBI, now RISE), I left University after 13 stimulating years. My present work concerns geological materials and derivatives thereof, including aggregates, natural stone, industrial minerals, concrete, slag and foundry sand, and recycling, reuse and alternatives for geological raw materials. Coming from philosophical faculty, I’m time and again delighted over how important that deeper “for its own sake”-knowledge is in an applied area like this.