Staffan Normark elected new Permanent Secretary of the Academy

On 14 April the Academy decided to appoint Professor Staffan Normark as new Permanent Secretary from 1 July 2010. He will succeed Professor Gunnar Öquist who has held the position since 2003.

Staffan Normark is Professor of Medical Microbiology at Karolinska Institutet and The Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (SMI). His research concerns the pathogenic properties of bacteria, especially E.coli, Helicobacter pylori (the "ulcer bacterium"), gonococcus and salmonella. Lately he has been focusing on pneumococcal bacteria, which causes 1-2 million deaths by pneumonia per year worldwide. Since the 1970s he has performed pioneering work on both genetic engineering and molecular biology in Sweden.