>Back to 2023 Annual Meeting Main Page

Keynote Speakers

We are excited to announce six exceptional keynote speakers presenting at the 2023 U21 Health Sciences Annual Meeting focusing on the theme ‘Climate Change and Health’. The Programme is here.

Ken Winkel

2023 Doctoral Student Forum Masterclass: “When Two Roads Diverge – Sustainable Careers in Sustainability”

Monday 28 August 2023

Associate Professor Ken Winkel is a teaching specialist within the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health (MSPGH). He represents the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences on the Sustainability Advisory Group to the University of Melbourne and co-ordinates healthcare sustainability and One Health teaching. He is a Fellow of the Australasian College of Tropical Medicine (ACTM) and is an alumnus of the University of Melbourne (PhD), the University of Queensland (MBBS)(BMedSci) and the Swiss Tropical Institute (Master of International Health Advanced module). Dr Winkel has published more than 100 papers, including in the Lancet journals, and secured more than A$7M in research and research translation funding. He has won multiple teaching awards, including for the ‘Our Planet, Our Health’ teaching collaboration with The Doherty Institute and Melbourne Veterinary School. He has also supervised numerous PhD and other students and is now focused on amplifying the sustainability in healthcare agenda.

Karin Lundgren Kownacki

Session Title: “Climate change and health - An overview and the example of Sweden”

Tuesday 29 August 2023

Karin Lundgren Kownacki is a climate adaptation analyst at the Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute. She works in the secretariat for the Swedish Expert Council on Climate Adaptation and as a climate change and health expert at the National Knowledge Centre on Climate Adaptation. She is also involved in various capacity development projects. Karin has a background within the environmental and sustainability sciences and holds a PhD in human thermal environments with an emphasis on occupational heat stress under climate change from Lund University.

Lennart Olsson

Session Title: “Climate Change and Health”

Tuesday 29 August 2023

Lennart Olsson is Professor of Geography at Lund University and founding director of LUCSUS (Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies,) 2000-17. He was also leading the Linnaeus Centre LUCID (Lund University Centre of Excellence for Integration of Social and Natural Dimensions of Sustainability) 2008-18.

His research fields include human-nature interactions in the context of agriculture, land degradation, climate change and food security in Africa and globally, and he has a strong interest in theoretical approaches to interdisciplinarity.

A current research focus is on the transition from annual monocultures to perennial polycultures in agriculture, in this role he is member of the board of directors of the Land Institute (USA). He is currently associate editor of the journals: Ecology and Society, and the new journal Global Sustainability. He has had research positions in Australia, USA and Hong Kong and participated in several international assignments including the IPCC and UNEP-GEO assessments. He was Coordinating Lead Author for the chapter on livelihoods and poverty in IPCC’s 5th Assessment Report 2011-14, and for the chapter on Land Degradation in the IPCC special Report on Climate Change and Land (SRCCL), 2017-19. Link to his publications.

Sara Gabrielsson

Session Title: “Sustainable WASH in a climate of uncertainty”

Tuesday 29 August 2023

Sara Gabrielsson is a senior lecturer in Sustainability Science at Lund University. Sara’s primary research focuses on Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WASH) and sustainable development in East Africa. Sara’s vision is to facilitate the interaction between research and practice to enable the spread of sustainable WASH from theory to action. Currently, she is coordinating a research project on complicated plastics, where the health and environmental implications of disposable menstrual pads for users and sanitation service providers in Kenya are examined. 

Andreas Vilhelmsson

Session Title: "Educating health professionals about climate change and health”?

Wednesday 30 August

Andreas Vilhelmsson is an associate researcher at the Faculty of Medicine and the Division of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Lund University. 

His research focuses on different aspects of human health, but with a specialized focus on issues concerning global health, environmental health (especially endocrine disruptive chemicals and fertility), climate change (health effects but also policy and communication), mental health (including suicidology), pharmaceuticals (regulation, toxicology, and pharmacovigilance), pandemics, nudging, AI and digitalization. 

He is a 2022 Fellow with the Global Catastrophic Risk Institute in Washington. 

Clara Brune and Clara Kihlborg

Session Title: “Our Health is on Fire" - "Climate and health - the perspective of healthcare students"

Wednesday 30 August 2023

Clara Brune and Clara Kihlborg are both the project managers for Our Health is on Fire (Vår Hälsa Brinner), which is an initiative from the organization IFMSA-Sweden. The purpose of Our Health is on Fire is to draw attention to and educate about the health effects of climate change.

In 2022 Clara Brune was the VPE of IFMSA-Sweden, Vice President for External Affairs, and coordinated the work outward and the organization's collaborations. Last year, together with other members, they started Our Health is on Fire which since then has worked toward its purpose through hosting workshops, panel discussions, participating in the Almedalen Week, writing debate articles, visiting high schools and trying to influence health education toward focusing more on sustainability.

Our Health is on Fire is based on its iconic alphabet, which means to illustrate how broadly climate change is hitting public health by highlighting health problems created or exacerbated by climate change for every letter in the alphabet.

Peter Lewis

Teaching Excellence Workshop Facilitators - 2022 Teaching Excellence Award Winners

Session Title: “Creating international academic partnerships and opportunities for virtual student exchange using “CHAT” to initiate a global community of learners”

Wednesday 30 August 2023

Associate Professor Peter Lewis is the Director of Teaching and Learning for The University of Queensland’s School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work. Peter’s responsibility extends to the management of all teaching and learning activities for the disciplines of nursing, midwifery, social work and counselling as well as the International Portfolio. With experience across three major Australian universities, Peter has a deep understanding of institutional identity, norms and culture, and is a well-rounded academic with outcomes across teaching, research and service. Working in tertiary education since 2003, Peter teaches across both undergraduate and postgraduate programs and supervises higher degree research students.

His broader responsibilities have included, but are not limited to: leadership in curriculum development and implementation; internal and external accreditation processes; interprofessional teaching and cooperation; development and implementation of School strategic plans; development and management of moderation processes which ensure transparency of standards of quality in implementation and outcomes; administration of programs; maintaining and developing domestic and international partnerships with both industry and external tertiary providers; and international consultancy particular to staff development and capacity building, teaching and learning and curricula development and review.

Teresa Chan

Dr. Teresa Chan is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Associate Dean of Continuing Professional Development at McMaster University and an Emergency Physician with Hamilton Health Sciences. In 2021, McMaster named her as a University Scholar, which is awarded to mid-career faculty members who are considered global leaders in their field. Dr. Chan has established an international reputation as a scholar who examines how health professionals can best use social media to increase health literacy in physicians and the lay public.

She has received multiple awards in recognition of her work, winning nearly every local award available to her as an emergency medicine educator. Among these, she received the 2021 Royal College Award for Early-Career Leadership in Medical Education; 2021 Early Career Medical Educators Champion Award; 2019 Canadian Association for Medical Education Meridith Marks New Educator Award; and the 2017 Association of Faculties of Medicine (AFMC) of Canada Young Educator Award.

Recently, she was lauded for her leadership in faculty development with the 2022 AFMC Award for Outstanding Contribution to Faculty Development in Canada. Renowned for her scholarship in faculty development and online education research, Dr. Chan is passionate about revolutionizing medical education through continued innovation, scholarship, and teaching. Among her many important innovations, she created a competency-based assessment program for emergency medicine residents and developed a globally-accessed online program that aims to foster academic and scholarly skills development in early career faculty members so they may help their trainees in return.

Elin Linderberg

Maria Swanberg

Maria Swanberg holds a Ph.D. in Experimental Neuroscience from Karolinska Institute, Stockholm in 2007 and is a group leader tor the Translational Neurogenetics Unit at Lund University since 2011. She is also the Programme Director for the international Biomedicine programs at Lund University, working with Team-based learning and other forms of active learning. She teaches undergraduate students Biomedicine and Medicine in the areas of Genetics, Neuroscience, and Mental Health First Aid. She is a former Teaching Sabbatical fellow at the School of Life Science, Arizona State University. 

Per Mickwitz

Session Title: "Knowledge for a Transition to Carbon Neutrality”

Thursday 31 August 2023

Professor Per Mickwitz works as pro-vice-chancellor for research, sustainability, and campus development at Lund University. During 2019-2020 he worked as Director of the International Institute for Industrial Environmental Economics (IIIEE) at Lund University. Prior to working at Lund University Per Mickwitz worked and lived in Finland. During 2012-18 he worked as a research director at the Finnish Environment Institute. He has a Ph.D. in environmental policy from the University of Tampere. He has studied environmental policy evaluation and energy and climate policy issues. He has also studied the emergence of new technologies and environmental innovations. In particular, issues related to stability and change in socio-technical systems and the role of policies for these processes. Between 2014 and 2018 Per Mickwitz was the chair of the Finnish Strategic Research Council and between 2019 and 2021 he was the vice chair of the board of the Academy of Finland. Between 2014 and 2022 Per Mickwitz was a member of the Scientific Committee of the European Environment Agency and between 2018 and 2022, he was the chair of the Committee.

David Gisselsson Nord

Session Title: "Sustainable Internationalization of research and higher education in a multipolar world”

Thursday 31 August 2023

David Gisselsson Nord is vice dean for international affairs and recruitment at the Faculty of Medicine, Lund University. He also leads the Genomic Medicine Sweden Childhood Cancer Working Group, aiming to provide whole genome sequencing to all children diagnosed with cancer in Sweden.

His combined roles in human genomics and internationalisation of research has led him to explore broad issues of research security, including risks for dual use of genomic technologies and its implications for human rights.

As a clinician-researcher he has received the Fernström Prize to Promising Young Investigators and the SIOP Award for Translational and Basic Research.