腦瞳憫

28 May 2025

Speaker of the Riksdag Andreas Norlén and Professor Angela Woods praised their collaborations with 腦瞳憫 when they were conferred honorary doctorates at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.Its a great privilege to receive an honorary doctorate from ones alma mater, says Andreas Norlén.

Andreas Norlén and Angela Woods were awarded honorary doctorates at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences in 2025. Photographer: Peter Holgersson AB

The Latin phrase that has come to mean ones old university certainly fits the Speaker of the Riksdag. Andreas Norl矇n made his first acquaintance with LiU more than 30 years ago as a student on the commercial and business law programme. He returned to defend his doctoral thesis in commercial and business law in 2004. He was named Alumnus of the Year in 2019 and returns annually as a guest lecturer.

I was awarded my doctorate in 2005, almost 20 years ago to the day. Its amazing that the university remembers me, I think its great to be able to stay in touch over all these years.

Power and dynamism

Link繹ping University turns 50 in 2025. Andreas Norl矇n is following developments closely.

Speaker of the Riksdag is speaking.
Photographer: Magnus Johansson

Its great to see how the university has grown and developed over the years. What power, dynamism and energy there is. Not least because of the interdisciplinary and cross-subject approach that they have here, which I think will be very fruitful in the future.

Andreas Norl矇n gave a lecture entitled Speaker, Riksdag, academia and democracy. There he highlighted the vulnerability of democracy but stated that he is optimistic about both its short and long term prospects.

Democracy is morally superior, but also better at delivering prosperity to citizens. I believe that democracies have every opportunity to overcome the setbacks that there have been, but it requires hard work from each one of us.

Angela Woods, Professor of Medical Humanities at Durham University, was also awarded an honorary doctorate at the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Celebration of shared vision

"This is a huge honour for me personally, but I see it also as a celebration of a shared vision of the medical humanities as a truly interdisciplinary and collaborative venture that will play an increasingly important role in health research globally."

Angela Woods lecture concerned how we are affected by stories about health and illness.

"Narrative remains a key but not uncontested concept in critical medical humanities research it can illuminate illness experience, as well as the wider cultural frameworks through which distinctions between the 'normal' and 'pathological' are constituted. Our field must now proactively and systematically engage with the challenges AI poses to the ways we use and understand narrative in the context of health."

Lecture with Angela Woods.
Photographer: Magnus Johansson

Angela Woods is the director of one of the worlds largest research institutes in the medical humanities. Over the years, she has built a strong collaboration with the Centre for Medical Humanities and Bioethics (CMHB) at LiU.

"One could wish for no finer collaborators than Kristin Zeiler, Ericka Johnson and the wider team at CMHB. They are working at the critical cutting edge of our field in ways that are as generous and imaginative as they are intellectually rigorous. I am very excited about the projects and connections we are already pursuing between CMHB and the Institute for Medical Humanities, and for all the collaborations to come!"

Latest news from LiU

Superdatorn Berzelius.

Stronger Berzelius ready for the research of the future

The latest upgrading of the supercomputer Berzelius at LiU has now been completed. Its doubled capacity enables researchers across Sweden to tackle current and future challenges in areas such as materials science, bioinformatics and machine learning.

Gillian Einstein at her honorary doctorate lecture

Science without borders Gillian Einstein honored at LiU

It is such an honor, and I am truly proud to have been appointed honorary doctor. Thats what Professor Gillian Einstein said when she visited Campus US for her honorary doctorate lecture and a couple of intense days at 腦瞳憫.

Theodor Westny demonstrating a simulation of self-driving cars.

From simulation to reality with autonomous cars

If 腦瞳憫 is to be a leading player in self-driving vehicles, we need to gear up. This is according to Theodor Westny at the Division of Vehicular Systems who is the initiator of a new research and teaching platform.