APPOINTMENT. The Academy Board has decided to designate the world’s leading occupational medicine researcher Paul Blanc as an honorary doctorate. He received the appointment for his long and significant collaboration with Sahlgrenska Academy.
Paul Blanc is a professor at the University of California in San Fransisco. He leads, among other things, a number of large epidemiological studies on how the respiratory system is affected by factors in the environment and the working environment. Paul Blanc was nominated by professor Kjell Torén, who has been collaborating closely with Paul for many years.
“We met in the 90s and we have been meeting several times a year since then. He has also become a friend of the family. Paul felt appreciated when I wanted to nominate him, and he was just as happy and surprised as I was that he will be getting an honorary doctorate from Sahlgrenska Academy,” said Kjell Torén.
As a researcher, Paul Blanc is very successful, with over 250 articles in reputable international journals. He is also one of the world’s most cited scientists in the field of occupational medicine.
In the last 15 years, Paul Blanc has been highly significant to the occupational medicine epidemiological research at the faculty. He has supervised a number of postdocs at Sahlgrenska Academy and he was a visiting professor at the Institute for Medicine in 2014.
“We have a very strong and long-lasting collaboration, and it is really a pleasure to be able to fortify it with Paul being appointed as an honorary doctorate,” said Kjell Torén, who believes that globalization has been one of Paul Blanc’s most important contribution to the occupational medicine research in Gothenburg:
“He has a large and developed network that we have been able to take advantage of, and he has opened doors to the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) for us.”
As head of the Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Paul Blanc has welcomed guest researchers from Sweden to his institution. A number of teachers from Sahlgrenska Academy have also been invited to international courses at the University of California.
Because he is also a leader in research on the history of occupational medicine, Paul Blanc has also been a teacher of the course Health, Medicine and Society in the institution of historical studies at the University of Gothenburg.
Paul Blanc will be officially appointed at the conferment ceremony for doctoral degrees at the University of Gothenburg on October 21, 2016.
