Professor Emeritus Jan Lindhe, Sahlgrenska Academy, has been awarded “the Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon” by His Majesty the Emperor of Japan. For over 40 years Jan Lindhe has cooperated with Japan regarding issues of dental care and this order represents recognition of his involvement. In earlier years Clint Eastwood, Peter Shelley and Richard Bowring have been among those to receive the medal.
“It is a great honour to receive this order. I have had an unusually long relationship with Japan and the Japanese dental care system”, says Jan Lindhe.
He is to receive the medal at a ceremony at the Japanese embassy in Stockholm in January.
Jan Lindhe is one of the world’s most prominent researchers in periodontology, the science of tooth-loosening disorders. He became a professor in 1969, only 34 years old. Some years later, when Jan Lindhe headed the Institute of Odontology, the Institute started accepting the first Japanese dental students.
“A long series of Japanese dentists have done their residency training with us, and many of them have gained their doctorates here, too”, Jan Lindhe says.
He spends at least a week in Japan every year, and has done so for the past 30 years, visiting universities to tell them about the Swedish dental care system and also giving practical courses on the treatment of tooth-loosening disorders.
“I’ve just got home from Japan. Seven hundred people came and listened to my lecture, so interest is still great”, he says happily, adding that Tokyo is his favourite city. “It has absolutely everything”.
Jan Lindhe is known not only for his research contribution. More than 100,000 copies of his major textbook Clinical Periodontology and Implant Dentistry are spread all over the world. For nearly thirty years Jan Lindhe was also Editor-in-Chief of the scientific publication Journal of Clinical Periodontology.
The Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, founded in 1875 by Emperor Meiji, is awarded to persons who have made outstanding contributions for Japan in international relations, the promotion of Japanese culture, progress in their field, the development of welfare and conservation of the environment. The modern version of the distinction has eight classes and the one Jan Lindhe is to receive is the third.
Jan Lindhe receives the medal in recognition of his “unique contribution to increased understanding of Japan in Sweden”.
BY: MONICA HAVSTRÖM
