Bill Gates to visit Karolinska Institutet - live broadcasting

Bill Gates is to visit Karolinska Institutet for a second time. At a talk on 31 March, he will join Professor Hans Rosling and others in a discussion on some of the myths surrounding developments in the world’s poorest countries.

Bill and Melinda Gates were made honorary doctors at Karolinska Institutet in 2007, but it took a while for them to receive their doctor’s hats – Bill Gates at an official ceremony in January 2008 and Melinda Gates in August 2012.

The commitment they show to global health through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has helped finance research into the field at Karolinska Institutet. When visiting the university, they have also made sure to meet a number of research teams working on preventing maternal mortality and early infant death in the poorest countries and on developing new vaccines for diseases such as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria.

In the same spirit as Hans Rosling, professor of international health at Karolinska Institutet and founder of Gapminder, Bill and Melinda Gates strive to debunk some of the myths surrounding global development – such as that poor countries are destined to remain trapped in poverty.

On 31 March, Bill Gates will be holding a talk for 1,000 specially invited guests, students, researchers and alumni titled “The world is getting better – how we can end extreme poverty in our lifetime?”. The moderator will be Professor Rosling, and a panel comprising Anna Mia Ekström, Professor of Global Infectious Disease Epidemiology at KI, Hannah Akuffo, Head of Unit for Research Cooperation, Sida (the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency), and Julia Schalk, Political adviser on Sexual and Reproductive Health, International Department, RFSU (the Swedish Association for Sexuality Education) will be responding to questions from the floor. The hour-long debate will be opened by Vice-Chancellor Professor Anders Hamsten.

Text: Madeleine Svärd

Live broadcasting at 9.45 am (CEST) on March 31.

Centre for global health at Karolinska Institutet.

Join the discussion in social media: #StoptheMyth