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
2020 - Vittal Yachandra, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, USA 
2023 - Joachim Heberle, FU Berlin, Germany