Three Rudbeck medallists and a Linnaeus medallist announced

The Uppsala University Linnaeus Medal was established in 2006, and first awarded on the 300 year anniversary of Carl Linnaeus on 23 May 2007. The gold medal is conferred ‘for truly outstanding scientific achievement, especially in the Linnaean subject areas but also for meritorious furtherance of the legacy of Linnaeus or Uppsala University.’ This year’s Linnaeus medallist is Göran Arnqvist.

Professor Göran Arnqvist’s research straddles the line between ecology and genetics, focusing on the evolutionary consequences of sexual reproduction, primarily in insects. Arnqvist is one of the founders of the extensive research field that concerns itself with the study of genetic conflicts between the sexes and their effects on biological phenomena. He has shown that these conflicts have important effects on zoological diversity and gender types. His research is linked to the part of Linnaeus’ research that began with his dissertation on binary-gendered reproduction in 1759. Arnqvist’s research has shown that the biological significance of binary-gendered research is much greater than Linnaeus surmised.

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Uppsala University’s Rudbeck Medal was instituted by the University on September 17, 2002 on the occasion of the Tercentenary of the death of Olof Rudbeck, Sr. It is awarded ‘for extraordinarily prominent achievements in science, to be conferred primarily for such accomplishments or findings attained at Uppsala University.’ This year’s medallists are the following three senior researchers:

Otto Cars is Senior Professor at the Department of Medical Sciences. As a specialist of infectious disease, he has devoted many years to the issue of antibiotic resistance. His research has focused on how adequate dosage and rational use of antibiotics can help combat antibiotic resistance. For many years, Otto Cars was the head of Strama (the Swedish Strategic Programme against Antibiotic Resistance), which has affected involved institutions and government agencies to a large extent in Sweden, as well as the WHO. During the last ten years, he has been involved in establishing ReAct, an international network focusing on the global consequences of bacterial resistance to antibiotics. He is also one of the initiators of the Uppsala Antibiotic Centre (UAC), which deals with questions of antibiotic resistance from an interdisciplinary perspective at Uppsala University and the Uppsala region.

Lena Marcusson, Emeritus Professor at the Faculty of Law, is one of the leading Swedish and Nordic researchers on administrative law, broadly defined. She earned her doctorate at Uppsala University in 1989 with a dissertation on public administration outside governmental agencies. Since then, Lena Marcusson has conducted extensive and highly socially relevant research on organisational forms in public administration, principles of processing and guarantees of legal protection in public administration, as well as Swedish higher education and research from a juridical and comparative perspective.

Gerhart Wagner is Senior Professor at the Department of Cell and Molecular Biology, where he held a professorship in microbiology. He is an internationally recognised researcher at the forefront of microbial genetics, which was identified as world-leading at the quality evaluation KoF07. Gerhart Wagner has, in a number of research studies, shown the importance of small RNA (antisense RNA) for regulating vital functions in bacteria. This finding has great importance for controlling antibiotic resistance in bacteria, among other things.

Read more about the Rudbeck Medal