Professor Bengt A.Robertson

Bengt Robertson studied medicine at the Karolinska Institute in 1960, followed in 1968 by a Ph.D. degree on the intrapulmonary arterial pattern during normal infancy and in the transposition of great arteries in 1968. He became Docent in Pathology at the Karolinska Institute in the same year and served for many years as a consultant in pediatric pathology at St. Göran’s Hospital and an acting Professor of Pediatric Pathology at Karolinska Institute. From 1974 until his retirement in 2002, he was the Director of the Experimental Perinatal Pathology in the Department of Women and Child Health at the Karolinska Institute.

Professor Robertson carried out seminal studies into the etiology, prevention, and treatment of the neonatal respiratory distress syndrome (RDS), a major cause of death in premature infants. Using animal models, he carried out pioneering research on the physiology and pathophysiology of the respiratory tract as it relates to RDS in premature infants. His team was among the first to show that RDS could be prevented by introducing surfactants into the upper airways prior to the onset of breathing. Subsequently, they established the curative value of surfactant therapy in human premature infants.

Professor Robertson published more than 200 papers and 100 review articles in addition to numerous abstracts and letters, and several books in his specialty, including Pulmonary Surfactant: From Molecular Biology to Clinical Practice and Surfactant Therapy for Lung Disease. He was a member of several societies of medicine, neonatal medicine and pediatric research and the recipient of many awards. His honors include: an Honorary Membership of the Italian Society of Perinatal Medicine, a Fellowship of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, and Hilda and Alfred Eriksson’s Prize awarded by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1988.

This biography was written in the year the prize was awarded.