Two 2008 Honorary Doctors at Sahlgrenska Academy
News: May 07, 2008
The board of University of Gothenburg’s Faculty of health sciences, the Sahlgrenska Academy, will award honorary doctorates for 2008 to research and development manager Conny Persson and cardiac researcher Stephen G. Young. The degrees will be conferred at the university’s conferral of doctorates on October 24.
A honarary doctorate at the Sahlgrenska Academy is a proof of great appreciation of significant scientific or other contributions within the Academy’s field of competence. The Sahlgrenska Academy has appointed Conny Persson, research and development manager at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital, and Stephen G. Young, cardiac researcher at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA). They will receive their honorary doctorates in Medicine this October.
Conny Persson (b. 1945)
Conny Persson has been appointed honorary doctor in Medicine for his invaluable commitment and for his masterful talent in strengthening the ties between the Sahlgrenska Academy and the Sahlgrenska University Hospital. His profound understanding of the needs that are specific to education and research has turned the cooperation between both of our institutions into a factor in of success.
Through his employment in the field of health care, Mr. Persson has worked very closely with the Sahlgrenska Academy. In the last 15 years, he has served as an adjunct member of many of the leadership bodies and work groups at the Sahlgrenska Academy and previously when it was known as the Medical Faculty. He has expended significant effort in building cooperation between the Sahlgrenska Academy and health care in Sweden’s Västra Götaland county. His contributions to education and research through the ALF Agreement have been of extraordinary significance to the university. (The ALF Agreement, or Government Compensation to County Councils for Costs Arising from Research and Education Agreement, is an arrangement for compensation by the Swedish government to local councils for medical education and research at university hospitals.)
Mr. Persson was born in Gothenburg, Sweden, and earned a master’s degree in political science from University of Gothenburg in 1971. Subsequently, he began working with Gothenburg Health and Medical Services (Göteborgs sjukvård). Between 1989 and 1994, he served as director of Gothenburg’s Östra Hospital. From 1994 to 1997, he served as the deputy director-general for the regional health care office within Gothenburg Health and Medical Services. Since 1997, he has been research and development manager at the Sahlgrenska University Hospital.
Stephen G. Young (b. 1952)
Stephen G. Young has been appointed honorary doctor in Medicine for his exemplary dedication to doing research and training younger co-workers. His outstanding talents in communication and analysis are a source of inspiration to his colleagues at the Sahlgrenska Academy, and he has generously shared his expertise with others.
Dr. Young has been a pioneer in developing animal models for diseases such as arteriosclerosis and cancer. He has published over 200 scientific articles and was named “one of the top physicians in the United States” in 2003. He chaired a research program sponsored by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute that generated thousands of knockout mutations in embryonic stem cells in mice that researchers are now using around the world, including researchers at the Sahlgrenska Academy.
Dr. Young did his undergraduate work at Princeton University and received his M.D. in 1978 from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. Subsequently, he worked and trained as a cardiologist at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) and the University of California San Diego (UCSD). From 1993 to 2004, he was the director of cardiology research at San Francisco General Hospital. In 1996, he became a professor, and for the last four years has been the associate director of the Cardiovascular Research Institute at the University of California Los Angeles.
For more information, contact:
Dean Olle Larkö, telephone: +46 706–321 230, e-mail: olle.larko@sahlgrenska.gu.se
For pictures of Conny Persson and Stephen G. Young contact Ulrika Lundin, ulrika.lundin@sahlgrenska.gu.se