Gunnar Öquist (Sweden)
Gunnar Öquist, born 1941, studied chemistry and biology at Uppsala University where he graduated in 1967. He received his PhD in 1972 from Umeå University. His post doc period was divided between Umeå University, Lund University and Oregon State University. He spent the year of 1980 at the Carnegie Institution Department of Plant Biology at Stanford, and he has been visiting scientist at CSIRO in Canberra, and the University of Western Ontario. Gunnar Öquist was appointed Professor in Plant Physiology at Umeå University 1981.
Gunnar Öquist´s field of research has been stress and adaptation mechanisms in photosynthesis with a particular emphasis on elucidating the physiological responses of photosynthesis under the combined conditions of low temperature and high light. He has studied photosynthesis of evergreen confers, herbaceous plants, cyanobacteria and algae under contrasting environmental conditions. The cyanobacterial work also covers extensive research of the acclimation of photosynthesis to limiting iron supply. Öquist has ca. 200 publications in international journals. Impact: classified by Thomson-Reuters as an ISI Highly Cited Researcher in 2002 (http://isihighlycited.com/).
Gunnar Öquist was chaired professor of the Department of Plant Physiology at Umeå University between 1982 and 2003. He served part time as Secretary General of the Swedish Natural Science Research Council between 1993 and 2000, and he was the Permanent Secretary of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences between 2003 and 2010. During the same time period he was member and vice chair of the Board of the Nobel Foundation. Öquist has served on many advisory boards and review panels of science and research, such as the Board of the European Science Foundation, the EU European Research Advisory Board, University Boards, and the Board of the Danish National Research Foundation. He has recently stepped down as chair of the Science Advisory Board of the Knut and Alice Wallenberg Foundation, the dominating private foundation for basic research in Sweden. As Emeritus Professor, Öquist engages him selves in science policy issues both nationally and internationally, addressing the question: how to foster more of transformative research?
Gunnar Öquist is member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of Canada, the Australian Academy of Sciences, Academia Europea, Societas Scientiarum Fennica, Kungl. Fysiografiska Sällskapet och Kungl. Skytteanska Samfundet. He is also honorable member of the Swedish Young Academy. He is honorable doctor at Marie Curie-Skledowska University in Lublin, Polen, and at Copenhagen University, Copenhagen, Denmark.
Gunnar Öquist has received a number of medals and international orders for his service to science and research.