"If you can’t explain why something is interesting and worthwhile understanding – try again!"

 

I am looking forward to Innsbruck because...

I have been visiting and working with Innsbruck-based colleagues since the mid-1990s but unfortunately rarely stayed longer than 1-2 days. Innsbruck is a Mecca for calcium channel studies and I have always felt inspired following by visits. I look forward to learning more about the University and what is going on within its walls and getting to know Innsbruck better.

 

What surprised me about Innsbruck...

As a Swedish person I was intrigued to discover that Innsbruck was the place where the Swedish protestant Queen Christina became officially a catholic – a huge sensation (and a national disgrace) when it happened 370 years ago. 

 

My life motto is...

Hard work can – up to a point – compensate for the lack of talent.

 

I chose this field of study as a student because...

Well, during my first year in medical school I met, in a bar, a young scientist with an infectious enthusiasm. At the end of the evening (after quite a few drinks) I was persuaded to come and work with him. We have been collaborating (and competing) ever since but remained friends for close to 50 years.

 

My teaching philosophy is...

If you can’t explain why something is interesting and worthwhile understanding – try again!

 

My research has changed my understanding of the world by...

…that things can be quantified. Sounds boring but it is actually very helpful.

 

What particularly inspires me about my current research is...

…that things that started in the lab 25 years ago can eventually be turned into something clinically useful.

 

At this point in my life, I realised that I wanted to pursue an academic career... 

When I started doing electrophysiology and when I had the chance as a young student to join the lab of Bert Sakmann (later Nobel Prize laureate) in Göttingen. I felt then that the patients would have to wait a few years (and I am afraid that they are still waiting – good for them). It was all so exciting and I didn’t want to miss out on it. With the new experimental tools Sakmann and Neher had been developed, there were so many things that could be explored. Every cell type was a new “continent” to explore. It has kept me busy ever since – the continent was larger than I expected and we keep pushing into the central parts and the ocean at the other side is still out of sight.

 

The role of interdisciplinary collaboration in academic research is important to me because...

After many years as a basic scientist, I, as a young professor, was, more or less, told to work more closely with clinicians. Although I at first found it very challenging and reluctantly agreed, I soon realized that this is the way forward...

 

I see the role of universities in promoting societal change as...

I don’t necessarily think that promoting societal change is the first objective of universities. Sometimes it is intellectually useful to retreat to the ‘ivory tower’ (acknowledging that the term is mostly use derogatively). Blue skies research has a value. I admire academics who can translate their research into something useful but when it happens it usually requires the resources that academia can’t muster.

 

For a successful academic career, I consider the following skills to be indispensable...

In Edison’s words: ‘it is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration”. Having said that, I also recall Lord Carnarvon’s response to the question posed by his assistant Howard Carter, when he first peeped through the hole into Tutankhamen’s tomb. ‟What do you see?ˮ Carter asked. ‟I see wonderful thingsˮ was the reply. This is what it is sometimes like to be a scientist!