Stephan Rössner and Carol Tishelman to receive this year’s Silver medal
Stephan Rössner and Carol Tishelman are to be awarded the 2024 KI Silver Medal. The medal is conferred upon individuals who have made particularly commendable efforts in support of Karolinska Institutet’s activities. The researchers will receive their medals at the Diligence and Devotion ceremony next February.
Professor emeritus Stephan Rössner, formerly of the Department of Medicine in Huddinge, is awarded the silver medal for his groundbreaking research on obesity. He has also been a public mediator of important lifestyle information and an exceptionally successful ambassador for Karolinska Institutet.
For over three decades, Stephan Rössner has led a research group at Karolinska Institutet (KI) that has been studying the relationship between lifestyle, diet, exercise, eating behaviour and ill-health. He has also led and participated in several major international studies of obesity drugs.
Director of studies and lecturer
Other roles that Professor Emeritus Rössner has had at KI include director of studies and, for a time, principal lecturer in the field of medicine for physiotherapy students. He has also spent many years teaching on the medical programme and as a lecturer on different doctoral courses.
In 2000, he was made honorary member of KI’s Medicinska Förening (Medical Students' Association in Sthockholm) in recognition of his teaching excellence.
Besides his world-leading research and education prowess at all three levels, Stephen Rössner has been a tireless and witty communicator of information on lifestyle choices and obesity through dozens of popular science books, lectures, debates and stand-up comedy.
Contributions as a public educator
One of his many cookery books, Smart mat (Smart food) has sold almost 100,000 copies. He has also worked with science theatre at Stockholm City Theatre. These contributions to public education have done much to improve public awareness and health.
Professor Emeritus Rössner has also made considerable efforts to advance clinical practice, especially through his innovative ideas around the establishment of Sweden’s first obesity clinic, Stockholm Region’s Centre for Obesity, which ties research findings, development and education closer to the healthcare services.
Stephan Rössner has also chaired numerous international obesity associations and for several years was in charge of arranging the Swedish Society of Medicine’s Annual General Meeting and a great many national and international conferences, such as the European Congress of Obesity (ECO) and the International Congress on Obesity (ICO).
Carol Tishelman for her contributions to education and research
Carol Tishelman, professor of innovative care at the Department of Learning, Informatics, Management and Ethics, receives the silver medal for her significant contributions to research, education and collaboration, which have enriched KI’s activities and reputation and made a profound impact on the development of health and social care and society.
Professor Tishelman has been active at KI since the mid-1980s and was appointed professor in 2007. In 2014 she obtained, in open competition, an Investor-financed endowment professorship in innovative care at Karolinska Institutet with a combined position as a Karolinska University Hospital nurse.
Interdisciplinary collaboration
Professor Tishelman’s outstanding career includes pioneering research on cancer and palliative care, innovative healthcare practice and healthcare organisation, and a significant input to all three educational levels at KI.
By virtue of her ability to work across disciplinary boundaries and her visionary approach to integrated healthcare, patient-centred care and end-of-life issues, Carol Thiselman is at the national and international forefront of her field.
Professor Tishelman has also held visiting professorships at overseas universities and leading positions in several influential organisations, such as the European Society for Psychosocial Oncology (ESPO) and the International Society of Nurses in Cancer Care (ISNCC).
End-of-life expertise
Professor Tishelman’s extensive transdisciplinary network has led to the funding of many major international and national projects, such as the DöBra programme (a national research programme on dying, death and bereavement), which generates knowledge from a public health perspective that can help individuals, their community and healthcare professionals be better prepared to handle end-of-life encounters both within and outside the care system. These efforts earned Carol Tishelman and her team the 2021 KI Culture Prize.
Professor Tishelman was an early forerunner in the establishment of the field of social care and the nursing and specialist nursing programmes at Karolinska Institutet.
She has taught and examined numerous courses and run pedagogical projects in which she has engaged teaching staff, students and clinicians with her various creative, crossover initiatives.