Lars Ernster was appointed Professor of Biochemistry at the Department of Biochemistry (currently Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics) in 1967. He built the Department around top scientists working on various aspects of Bioenergetics and brought research within the field to an internationally leading level. These developments also laid the foundation for the present-day Department where several of Lars' previous co-workers are still active scientists.
Lars Ernster was born May 4, 1920 in Budapest, Hungary and came to Sweden in 1946 at an age of 26. He obtained a Ph.D. degree at Stockholm University in 1956 and became professor of Biochemistry in 1967. In 1974 he became member of Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and he was member of The Nobel Committee for Chemistry during 1977-1988.
After Lars passed away in November 1998 the Department Board decided to launch a lecture series in Lars' memory, the "Lars Ernster Lecture in Bioenergetics". Every year the Board invites a world-leading Lecturer working within a scientific area related to Lars Ernster's research activities.
Former Lars Ernster Lecturers
- 1998 - Mårten Wikström, Helsinki University, Finland
- 1999 - Leslie Dutton, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, USA
- 2000 - Chuan-pu "CP" Lee, Oregon State University, USA
- 2001 - Sten Orrenius, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden
- 2002 - Paul Boyer, University of California at Los Angeles, USA
- 2003 - Wolfgang Junge, University of Osnabrück, Germany
- 2004 - Antony Crofts, University of Illinois, USA
- 2005 - John Walker, Mitochondrial Biology Unit, Cambridge, UK
- 2006 - So Iwata, Imperial College, London, UK
- 2007 - Poul Nissen, University of Aarhus, Denmark
- 2008 - Walter Neupert, München University, Germany
- 2009 - Harry B. Gray, Caltech, USA
- 2010 - Ulrich Brandt, Goethe-Universität Frankfurt, Germany
- 2011 - Alexander Tzagoloff, Columbia University, USA
- 2012 - Nils-Göran Larsson, Max Planck Institute for Biology of Ageing, Köln, Germany
- 2013 - Etana Padan, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel
- 2014 - Gottfried Schatz, University of Basel, Switzerland
- 2015 - Nathan Nelson, Tel Aviv University, Israel
- 2016 - Maria Falkenberg, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
- 2017 - John Rubinstein, University of Toronto, Canada
- 2018 - Nikolaus Pfanner, University of Freiburg, Germany
- 2019 - Carola Hunte, Institute for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology University of Freiburg
