Bernt Eric Uhlin receives Forska!Sverige Honorary Award

Professor Bernt Eric Uhlin was the director of UCMR 2008-2019 and director of MIMS 2007-2018.

ImageMattias Pettersson

for his long and dedicated work in building a world-leading and sustainable scientific environment

“The announcement that I was receiving this honorary award came as a complete surprise and I feel very honoured”, says Bernt Eric Uhlin, professor of medical microbiology at the Department of Molecular Biology, Umeå University.

To enable the highest possible international research quality, not least in the life science area, it is central to create and offer attractive conditions.

Bernt Eric Uhlin is recognized both nationally and internationally in his field. He was the initiator, together with a group of colleagues, of the multidisciplinary centre formation Umeå Centre for Microbial Research (UCMR), a successful scientific community for the strategic recruitment of young top researchers. He was the director of UCMR 2008-2019.

“We give this year's honorary award to Bernt Eric Uhlin for his building of a research environment where young group leaders who are recruited in strong international competition can have access to excellent resources and a long-term perspective that enables risk-taking in research”, says Anna Nilsson Vindefjärd, secretary general of Forska!Sverige.

With the UCMR experience as a basis, the Swedish Research Council granted an application from Umeå University, with Bernt Eric Uhlin as coordinator, for the establishment of a molecular medicine laboratory in partnership with the well-reputed European organization EMBL (European Molecular Biology Laboratory). The UCMR researchers were thus able to establish MIMS (Laboratory for Molecular Infection Medicine Sweden), which came to form the Swedish part of The Nordic EMBL Partnership for Molecular Medicine.

Bernt Eric Uhlin, as director of MIMS between 2007-2018, has led the international recruitments, as well as provided significant mentoring for the new young group leaders.

“MIMS's successful concept is illustrated by the fact that Nobel laureate Emmanuelle Charpentier, as a young researcher, was one of the first recruits”, says Anna Nilsson Vindefjärd.

Part of Bernt Eric Uhlin's overall vision was to also provide the researchers with the best possible research infrastructure for molecular infection research, which was made possible with funding from several external research funders.

“I really want to emphasize that, in my role as coordinator and director of UCMR and MIMS, I have had the privilege of collaborating in teams with many colleagues who have been involved in our efforts to maintain a scientific environment that promotes innovative biomedical research. I therefore share this honour with these colleagues as well as with the recruited young group leaders who took advantage of the opportunities and successfully established their research with us”, says Bernt Eric Uhlin.

Bernt Eric Uhlin, as director of MIMS, has led the international recruitments, as well as provided significant mentoring for the new young group leaders, including Emmanuelle Charpentier, who received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2020.

ImageEva-Maria Diehl, Johan Gunseus, Johan Gunseus www.gunseus.com