Olof Johansson is a Royal Society of Edinburgh/BP Trust Research Fellow in the School of Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh. His research group uses recent advances in ultrafast laser techniques, which have made it possible to explore magnetic interactions on unprecedented timescales, and apply these to study magnetisation dynamics in molecular materials. His research activities span a range of disciplines from synthetic and materials chemistry to molecular and condensed matter physics. A continued development of new magnetic materials and new ways of controlling them will contribute to the development of future information storage devices.