Honorary doctors: resource-effective region and holistic view on health

Charlotta Sund will be promoted to honorary doctor for her commitment to collaboration with the university and her strong interest in establishing Linköping and Östergötland as the world’s most resource-efficient region. She is president and CEO of the municipal company Tekniska Verken in Linköping and has an MSc in Industrial Engineering and Management from Linköping University. Under Charlotta Sund’s lead, Tekniska Verken has further assimilated research results from LiU in areas such as industrial symbiosis, biogas and service development. She thereby contributes to research utilisation and to LiU contributing to important societal goals.

Lennart Nordenfelt, senior professor in Theory and Ethics of Health Care. Photo credit Peter Modin Lennart Nordenfelt will be appointed honorary doctor of medicine. He became a professor in 1987 and is currently senior professor at Marie Cederschiöld University College in Stockholm. Lennart Nordenfelt defines the concept of heath as an individual’s ability to realise vital goals. He makes a distinction between different ways of looking at health – the bio-statistical way (absence of illness) and the holistic way (ability to realise goals) – and is of the opinion that an adequate theory of health must have a holistic approach. Through his, and other philosophers’, theories, the concepts of health and quality of life have also gained influence in medicine. Lennart Nordenfelt’s theories on health have been, and still are, important in the development of Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences programmes at all levels.

Both honorary doctors will be promoted at the Academic Celebration, which will be held on 27 May at Linköping Konsert & Kongress. They will each give an honorary doctor’s lecture that will be open to the public.