Föreläsningar och seminarier The Eva and Georg Klein lecture 2026 & Culture and Brain

Speaker

Ole Petter Ottersen, Professor Emeritus, Vice President Virchow Foundation and former President of Karolinska Institutet (2017-2023)

Ole Petter Ottersen graduated in medicine from the University of Oslo in 1982. He was the director of the Centre for Molecular Biology and Neuroscience, a centre of excellence at the University of Oslo (2002–2009). He was twice elected president of Oslo University 2009- 2017. In 2017 he was appointed president of KI (until 2023).

He is particularly noted for his research on molecular mechanisms involved in the development of acute and chronic neurodegenerative disease, with a special emphasis on the role of cellular water balance and glutamate excitotoxicity.

Ole Petter has been one of the most-cited Norwegian scholars in international academic journals,  cited over 38,000 times in scientific literature and with an h-index of 104. 

He has received many prestigious international awards and appointments. In 2008, he received the Anders Jahre Award for Medical Research. He was editor-in-chief of the journal Neuroscience 2006–2009. In 2019, Ottersen became a member of the Lancet–SIGHT Commission on Peaceful Societies Through Health and Gender Equality, chaired by Tarja Halonen. 

Eva and Georg Klein

Eva and Georg Klein were International pioneers in the once-emerging field of modern tumor biology. At their KI Department of Tumor Biology, founded in 1958, they contributed seminal insights into tumor immunology, tumor antigens, cancer genetics, oncogenes and suppressor genes, and tumor virology. Georg passed away on Nobel Day 2016 and Eva in January 2025, three days before her 100th birthday. Last year we celebrated their two hundred year anniversary -both born in 2025. The Georg and Eva Klein Foundation, established in 2005, is honouring their memory by funding symposia, annual Eva and Georg Klein lectures, and research fellowships,  in the spirit of Eva and Georg, both on science and culture, or both. Some earlier speakers in the series: 

2017 Mihalyi Csikszentmihalyi

2018 Minna Bissell and Siddhartha Mukherjee

2019 Eric Kandel and Jeff Koons

2020 Robert Weinberg and Douglas Hanahan, EPFL 

2022 Harald zur Hausen

2023 Tak Mak

2024 Gerard Evan

2025 Jim Allison

Host

George and Eva Klein Foundation (GEKS). 

Bankgiro 647-5578 Swish-number: 1234 275 962 

Centre for Culture, Cognition and Health, Karolinska Institutet

Contact

Ingemar Ernberg, ingemar.ernberg@ki.se, 070 5467636