14.11.2019

Carl G. Gahmberg appointed as new Chancellor of Åbo Akademi University

The Åbo Akademi University Collegiate Body has appointed Professor Carl G. Gahmberg as the new Chancellor of Åbo Akademi University.

By virtue of the special provisions pertaining to Åbo Akademi University as given in the Universities Act, Åbo Akademi University shall have a Chancellor. The duty of the Chancellor is to promote scientific activities as well as the interaction of the university with society, to look after the general interests of Åbo Akademi University and to oversee its operations. The Chancellor also awards titles of Docent.

To be elected Chancellor, the individual is required to have served science, art or the university system with distinction. The University Collegiate Body appoints the Chancellor for five years at a time.

MD Carl Gustav Gahmberg was born in 1942 in Kirkkonummi. Gahmberg studied at the University of Helsinki where he became Licentiate of Medicine in 1968, and Doctor of Medical Science in 1971. He worked as a postdoctoral fellow 1972–1974 at the University of Washington, and was awarded the title of Docent in Cellular Biology at the University of Helsinki in 1974. Gahmberg was a Professor of Biochemistry at Åbo Akademi University from 1979 to 1981, and a Professor of Biochemistry at the University of Helsinki from 1981 to 2010. From 1986 to 1991 he was also a Research Professor for the Academy of Finland.

Gahmberg has been quoted more than 14 000 times and he has been elected as member of several European academies of science. As Permanent Secretary of many years at the The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters, and today as honorary member, he has given the Finnish scientific community visibility, both nationally and internationally.

Gahmberg will be succeeding Professor Ulrika Wolf-Knuts whose five-year term as Chancellor comes to an end this year.