"This is a big step. I am humble and it is with deep respect I am looking forward to this task", comments Erik Renström.
He is also highlighting that the definitive decision from the Swedish Government is yet not taken.
Erik Renström was one of three final candidates for the position as new vice-chancellor. In the so-called Electoral College, which brings together a group of staff and students, he received most votes after the college had interviewed all the final candidates.
“I am convinced that Erik Renström will lead Lund University in an excellent manner. He has the qualities and experience required to safeguard and develop a university of this stature”, says the chair of the Lund University Board, Jonas Hafström.
“All the final candidates were very strong. The board received a clear signal from the organisation regarding the preferred candidate for vice-chancellor and that has naturally carried considerable weight in the board’s decision”, says Jonas Hafström.
The proposal for the new vice-chancellor will now be submitted to the Government, which in turn will make a decision later in the autumn.
Facts/Erik Renström
Erik Renström, a physician and professor of Experimental Endocrinology, has extensive academic experience. He has worked in healthcare, academia and the business sector, and has also acted as a coordinating pivot between the different actors in several projects.
Erik Renström was born in Gothenburg in 1963 and lives in Landskrona. He qualified as a physician in 1992 and worked in a clinical role in healthcare until 1997 when he was awarded a PhD in Membrane Physiology with the thesis “Properties of Calcium-dependent Pancreatic Hormone Secretion: Evidence for Distinct Functional Pools of Secretory Granules” at the University of Gothenburg.
Renström’s research focuses on diabetes, in particular the insulin-producing beta cells in the pancreas. He became professor of Experimental Endocrinology at Lund University in 2009 and dean of the University’s Faculty of Medicine in 2018. He has conducted diabetes research in Lund and Gothenburg and spent time as a postdoc in the UK. Erik Renström also worked as a researcher at the pharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk A/S in Copenhagen in the years 1995 to 1997. Erik Renström has been the assistant coordinator at the Lund University Diabetes Centre (LUDC), which became a Linnaeus Centre in 2006, as well as coordinator for Exodiab, one of the Swedish Government’s strategic research areas (SRAs).