I was born in Kalmar on the Swedish East Coast in 1931. As a young boy I took a strong interest in technical things and dreamt of becoming an inventor. Eventually I started to study physics at the University of Lund, but felt an urge to keep in touch with inventing and engineering. As a conscript radar/radio engineer in the Navy, I came to Stockholm, began studies in control engineering at the Royal Institute of Technology and ended up as a professor of physics. But between my studies and the academic career I held positions in industry, at IBM in the US and at LKB, a pioneering Swedish instrument company engaged in medical instrumentation. Later I also came to cooperate with SAAB, and Hasselblad, the Swedish camera manufacturer. The inventions developed by me and my students led to the founding of a small company, Sarastro Inc., that finally became part of a larger company in the US Silicon Valley.
The benefits of working in the interface region between different dynamic disciplines soon |
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became evident and my doctoral thesis work in physics dealt with molecular spectroscopy. When entering this field I had the advantage of being familiar with computers (not so common at that time) and numerical analysis. I was one of the first users of the one and only Swedish computer, known as the BESK, during that period. My engagement in data processing led to the “Term Value Method”, which became a standard tool in molecular spectroscopy.
My research group combined laser scanning with confocal imaging in a setup that allowed collecting digital stacks of images for 3-dimensional visualization and analysis. The patent is of relevance to confocal laser scanning microscopes (CLSMs) used today at laboratories all over the world, primarily to study cells and other biological objects.
I am a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, as well as the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences and am a Medical Doctor honoris causa at the Karolinska Institute. |
