Record private donation to KTH
KTH has received one of its largest private donations ever. A total of SEK 70 million has been donated to research within the field of medical technology by Kerstin and Rune Jonasson.
The donation will mainly be used for research purposes through the procurement of qualified medical equipment in the field of electronic imaging. The aim is to create a high-tech infrastructure that constitutes a platform for research collaboration between KTH, Karolinska Institutet and Karolinska Hospital in the field of medical technology.
Part of the donation can also be used to provide opportunities for the recruitment of leading edge expertise in the field.
Philip von Segebaden, head of fundraising at KTH, is pleased about the donation. He means that private donations for technical research will play an increasingly important role which will strengthen Sweden as a leading nation in scientific research.
"We feel that there has been a strong increase in interest from the world around us by becoming involved with KTH and the excellent research that is being conducted here. Donations of this type are very important for the university's own opportunities to put new life into their research. Long-term financing of this type also provides opportunities for the research to re-focus and adopt a bolder approach.
KTH's President, Peter Gudmundson says that the donation will provides KTH with a very welcome contribution to medical technology, which is one of KTH's strategically important and highly prioritised areas of research.
"With the Jonasson couple's exceedingly generous donation in combination with other efforts being made in the field, we can now create an incredibly powerful platform to take the research in the field to a completely new level. In addition to the fact that we are advancing our positions in the field, another effect of the donation is that the collaboration between KTH, Karolinska Institutet (KI) and Karolinska Sjukhuset (KS – Karolinska Hospital) is now being provided with a strong common ground," he says.
Rune Jonasson’s hope is that the donation will lead to research results that will provide improved diagnostic and therapeutic opportunities and will be widely shared.
"For me personally, this donation is also a thank you to KTH, where I received my degree in engineering physics in the late 1940s. Indirectly, it is a thank you to KI where I later received my medical training, and to KS, where much of my professional life was spent at the Department of Clinical Physiology, Department of Thoracic Surgery," he says.
An additional reason behind the donation will be to promote research collaboration within the field with South Korea.
“This is a recognition for the generosity the country has shown us ever since Kerstin worked there as a nurse during the Korean War at the Swedish field hospital in Pusan," says Rune Jonasson.
Text: Christer Gummeson
