Gro Harlem Brundtland and Michael Orme honorary doctors at Karolinska Institutet

The Board of Research has appointed two new honorary doctors, who will be formally appointed at a ceremony to be held in the Stockholm City Hall on 17 May 2013. Every year, Karolinska Institutet confers honorary doctorates on people who have made vital contributions to the university. The honorary doctors are to receive their cap, diploma and ring from the dean of research as testimony to their new status.

Gro Harlem Brundtland, honorary doctor of medicine (MDhc)

Gro Harlem Brundtland, former director general of the World Health Organisation (WHO) and long-standing Norwegian Prime Minister, Minister of the Environment and chairman of the Storting's Committee on Foreign and Constitutional Affairs, is to be made honorary doctor of medicine.

Gro Harlem Brundtland obtained her medical degree from the University of Oslo in 1963 and became Master of Public Health at Harvard University in 1965. Since leaving medicine for politics she has continued making significant contributions to health. Dr Harlem Brundtland was elected director general of the WHO in 1998, during which time she promoted sustainable and fair healthcare systems in all countries. As leader of the WHO, Dr Harlem Brundtland also took care to spread the solidarity perspective on research and health work, which has been very important for people living in poverty around the world and for Karolinska Institutet's focus on research in the field of global health.

Michael Orme, honorary doctor of medicine (MDhc)

Michael Orme, professor of clinical pharmacology and former dean of the medical faculty at the University of Liverpool in England is to be made honorary doctor of medicine. Professor Orme has worked with Karolinska Institutet for decades, and has been pivotal in placing Swedish clinical pharmacology at the forefront in Europe. In Sweden, his contributions have included the introduction of radio-immunological methods of drug analysis and participation in clinical trials of hypertension drugs.

At the initiative of the World Health Organisation (WHO), Professor Orme has been engaged in a project involving teachers at Karolinska Institutet and other European experts to draw up guidelines for the function of clinical pharmacology in healthcare, teaching and research. His breadth of experience from London's Royal Postgraduate Medical School and from the University of Liverpool has been vital in determining the focus of doctoral activities in clinical pharmacology at Karolinska Institutet.