Researcher profile Fred Nyberg is 80 today

One spring day 2025, the forum How can we combat violence is moved at short notice from Uppsala’s Cathedral Café to the University Main Building Hall X. The seminar, a collaboration between Uppsala University's Forum for research on pharmaceutical and drug addiction (U-FOLD), the Scandinavian Human Rights Lawyers and the Swedish Church, is attracting far more interested than the café can accommodate, and for Fred Nyberg, professor em. in addiction research, it is a return to the place where he 14 years earlier inaugurated U-FOLD on the University Grand Auditorium stage. And once again Fred takes the stage, this time to accept the Scandinavian Human Dignity Award, the international human rights award which is presented annually to a person or an organization that has made a particularly honorable contribution to promote human rights.

“In both U-FOLD and previous assignments, I have devoted great effort to science outreach and to conveying evidence-based knowledge. Through my involvements in the National Centre for Knowledge on Men's Violence Against Women and the Scientific Council of The Swedish Prison and Probation Service, I have met many people who, in their work to help vulnerable people, have been receptive to science, and to be awarded this prize is a recognition that I have really taken to heart, states Fred Nyberg, who today, 22 July turns 80 years young.

After four decades as the voice of science in the debate about drugs and addiction, Fred Nyberg is a household name far beyond the framework of academia. Media audiences recognize him from countless television programs and newspaper articles. As a vivid public educator and lecturer, he has visited most Swedish communities. Nevertheless, informing with facts is not embraced by all in a field where personal opinions are often given free rein, and for a period Fred Nyberg found himself the subject of a series of critical threads on the online forum Flashback.

“As researchers, we have a statutory responsibility to take the results of our research into society, and when the government appointed me Director of Research Issues at the Swedish National Drug Policy Coordinator, I became a natural contact for many journalists. I learned early on the importance of straightforward, simple answers so they would not take the question elsewhere, and not necessarily where the knowledge is. At the same time, the spotlight can be demanding, but over time you learn to choose your battles. For example, when SVT once invited me to discuss cannabis, I knew by the composition of the panel that I would be the old, conservative fuddy-duddy, so I forwarded the offer to a younger colleague. Regarding the Flashback threads, I merely consider them amusing merits,” states Fred Nyberg.

The Nybergian curiosity was probably present from birth. When his kindergarten comrades wheeled their tin cars around, the professor-to-be open the hood to explore what was hiding underneath. When asthma kept him from the smoking area of the local high school, he turned to natural sciences. And defending his PhD thesis with a focus on growth hormones was more of a starting point: Years later, Fred Nyberg would develop the themes of his dissertation to show how it is possible to recreate cognitive functions in a heroin-damaged brain. A discovery that continues to fascinate the scientific world and still prompt requests for lectures.

“Research has always formed the basis of my professional activities and along the way opened numerous important doors. This includes my assignments at the Swedish governmental Addiction (ANDT) Advisory Board and Svenska Spel's Independent Research Council, which in turn provided valuable contacts to the police and the sports movement. As Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy, I worked close to the Swedish Medical Products Agency and pharmaceutical industry. And when I in 2014 was elected the first non-American to chair the International Narcotics Research Conference, literally a whole world opened up where I found myself having lunch with China's Minister of Public Health one day and in a meeting with the CIA shortly thereafter.”

In his efforts with Science outreach – the university's third task – Fred Nyberg has given Sweden a prominent place on the addiction research map. In parallel, he has continuously brought the frontline of his field to Uppsala. Mary Jeanne Kreek, pioneer in the development of methadone treatment for heroin addiction, and Abba Kastin, portal figure in the medical-biological sciences, are among those who have started collaborations with the Faculty of Pharmacy: Two of many in a personal network that constitutes an almost unique asset. Still, despite generous proposals from other Institutes, the thought of leaving his alma mater never occurred.

“The Faculty of Pharmacy is a fantastic environment that has had great significance for me and my work. Today, I maintain my contact with Uppsala University as a Senior Advisor in U-FOLD to take the knowledge I can contribute into the future. This June our forum participated in Almedalen Week where we arranged five seminars that highlighted, among many things, gamification and how we can work together to stop criminal gangs from recruiting children and teens, a task that is extremely important. Protecting our young people, not least from drugs, must always remain among a society's priority challenges.”

See U-FOLD the Movie • How to help teens make smart choices online

Text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Stewen Quigley, Mikael Wallerstedt, Meli Petersson Ellafi, Svenska Spel a o