Svante Pääbo named Alumnus of the Year 2023

He opened up a completely new field of research by sequencing the genome of our long-extinct relatives. For his scientific accomplishments, Svante Pääbo was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2022. He has now been named Uppsala University’s Alumnus of the Year 2023.

The just cited the following when selecting Professor Pääbo as the alumnus most worthy of recognition this year:

“Through his groundbreaking research, he has achieved what no one believed possible: sequencing the genome of the Neanderthal, an extinct relative of today’s humans. He also made the sensational discovery of a previously unknown hominin, Denisova. Pääbo has contributed to our understanding of the big questions: where do we come from and what makes us uniquely human? He is a source of pride for the entire university.”

Pääbo began his studies at Uppsala University in 1975. Having started out studying history, Egyptology and Russian at the Faculty of Humanities, after two years he transferred to medicine. In 1981, he commenced doctoral studies with a focus on the immune system at the Department of Cellular Research and, in 1986, defended his doctoral thesis on how the E19 protein of adenoviruses modulates the immune system.

“In a way, I learned everything here: Egyptology, human biology at medical school, the then-new molecular genetics at the forefront of the Wallenberg lab where I took my PhD. That’s what I'm still doing today,” says Pääbo, who was a visiting professor in Uppsala from 2003 to 2015 and also served on the University Board.

An alumni lecture will be given by Professor Pääbo on 9 February 2024. Updated information on the lecture will be published on the University’s calendar. The Alumnus of the Year award will be presented at a ceremony on 9 October 2023.

For further information, please contact: Deputy Vice-Chancellor Coco Norén, chair of the advisory group for Alumnus of the Year, email: prorektor@uu.se tel: +46 (0)72 999 9000.

About the award:

Each year, Uppsala University awards the title Alumnus of the Year to a former student who has made an outstanding contribution to their professional field, or has accomplished something else worthy of honouring. The award is made possible by a donation from Professor John Frederick Morgan-Jones, an Uppsala alumnus from Canada. Anyone connected to Uppsala University may nominate a candidate for Alumnus of the Year. The decision on who is to receive the award is made by the Vice-Chancellor based on a recommendation from an advisory group.