''Fritiof'' Stig Sjöstrand (5 November 1912 – 6 April 2011) was a Swedish physician and histologist born in

Stockholm Stockholm (; ) is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in Sweden by population, most populous city of Sweden, as well as the List of urban areas in the Nordic countries, largest urban area in the Nordic countries. Approximately ...

. He started his medical education at

Karolinska Institutet The Karolinska Institute (KI; ; sometimes known as the (Royal) Caroline Institute in English) is a research-led medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area of Sweden and one of the foremost medical research institutes globally. ...

in 1933,Fritiof S. Sjöstrand - Biografi
, Karolinska Institutet 200 years where he received his Ph.D.

in 1944. Sjöstrand worked as an assistant at the department of

pharmacology Pharmacology is the science of drugs and medications, including a substance's origin, composition, pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, therapeutic use, and toxicology. More specifically, it is the study of the interactions that occur betwee ...

, where he first had used polarization microscopy, he first heard about the new method of

electron microscopy An electron microscope is a microscope that uses a beam of electrons as a source of illumination. It uses electron optics that are analogous to the glass lenses of an optical light microscope to control the electron beam, for instance focusing i ...

in 1938, within which he would become a pioneer. Manne Siegbahn at the Nobel Institute for Physics had planned to build an electron microscope in Sweden, and Sjöstrand got involved in the project to explore its use in medical research. The main challenge was to produce sufficiently thin samples, and Sjöstrand's method for producing ultrathin tissue samples was published in ''

Nature Nature is an inherent character or constitution, particularly of the Ecosphere (planetary), ecosphere or the universe as a whole. In this general sense nature refers to the Scientific law, laws, elements and phenomenon, phenomena of the physic ...

'' in 1943.Hur anatomiska institutionen blev internationellt centrum för elektronmikroskopi
, Karolinska Institutet 200 years However, it seemed that research based on electron microscopy would be too time-consuming for a Ph.D. thesis, so his 1944 thesis was based on

fluorescence Fluorescence is one of two kinds of photoluminescence, the emission of light by a substance that has absorbed light or other electromagnetic radiation. When exposed to ultraviolet radiation, many substances will glow (fluoresce) with colore ...

spectroscopy. In 1947-1948, he received a scholarship to further study electron microscopy at

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a Private university, private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of moder ...

's Department of Biology. Back in Sweden, he received funding to build up an electron microscopy research laboratory. In 1959, Sjöstrand was both offered a position as professor of histology at Karolinska Institutet, and as professor at

University of California, Los Angeles The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school the ...

(UCLA). He chose UCLA, because conditions for research and funding were better there. Sjöstrand founded the '' Journal of Ultrastructure Research'' in 1957. Since 1990, the journal has been called the '' Journal of Structural Biology''. Sjöstrand died on 6 April 2011, at the age of 98. In the recognition of Fritiof Sjöstrand's contribution to the development of electron microscopy, the Annual Sjöstrand Lecture series was set up in 2018 in Sweden. A holder of the lectureship also spends time with students and postdocs at SciLifeLab. The Inaugural Lecture was given by Venki Ramakrishnan at the

Karolinska Institute The Karolinska Institute (KI; ; sometimes known as the (Royal) Caroline Institute in English) is a research-led medical university in Solna within the Stockholm urban area of Sweden and one of the foremost medical research institutes globally ...

. The 2019 lecture was given by

Jennifer Doudna Jennifer Anne Doudna (; born February 19, 1964) is an American biochemist who has pioneered work in CRISPR gene editing, and made other fundamental contributions in biochemistry and genetics. She received the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, wit ...

. The 2021 lecture will be given by Jennifer Lippincott-Schwartz.

References

In Memoriam
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sjostrand, Fritiof S. 1912 births 2011 deaths Swedish pathologists Swedish biologists Histologists Karolinska Institute alumni Academic staff of the Karolinska Institute University of California, Los Angeles faculty Swedish expatriates in the United States