In Memoriam: Bo K Siesjö, 1930–2013

Abstract

Bo K Siesjo was an outstanding brain researcher and will be remembered as such. He was born in Sweden on 8 January 1930 and died in his home country on the 27 June 2013. He graduated from medical school at the Lund's University in 1958 and defended his PhD thesis at the same university in 1962. His postgraduate training took place in Sweden and Cambridge, and in the late 1980s he was a visiting scientist in Nice. After his graduation from medical school, he had appointments at the Lund's University and University Hospital until his retirement in 1995. In Lund he created the Laboratory for Experimental Brain Research, and the Swedish Research Council established a special professorship for him in 1974. He, subsequently, became the chief of the research department at Lund's University Hospital. After his retirement he went to Hawaii to build up a neuroscience research department at Queens Medical Center in Honolulu. Siesjo's research focus was on cerebral metabolism in the normal and injured brain, and an early important topic of his interest was the regulation of pH in the extra- and intracellular fluids in the brain. He published a textbook on the brain's energy metabolism and authored or co-authored more than 500 publications listed on PubMed. In 1970s his research focused on the ischemic metabolic cascade, the mechanisms of ischemic cell death, and the energy reserves in the brain, work that bore rich fruit. Two classic papers from this period stand out for their influence on the field, ie, his 1981 paper with Astrup and Symon on the concept of the ischemic penumbra,1 and his synthesis paper on the mechanisms of ischemic cell death.2 In his later years of research he also investigated the pathophysiology of chronic brain diseases, such as dementia of the Alzheimer's type. In his research carrier, Siesjo became one of the most highly cited scientists in his field. Bo Siesjo was the main catalyst for the founding in 1981 of the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism and the organization of its parent professional society, the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism. He was also the recipient of a number of awards that include the Mihara Award in 1989, the J Allan Taylor International Prize in Medicine in 1992, the KJ Zulch Prize in 1992, and the Lifetime Achievement Award by the International Society for Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism in 2003. Siesjo's research in Lund was renowned worldwide, and many young scientists from all over the world came to work with him. Many of them, who got their scientific start in his laboratory, later became well-established researchers in their home countries; more than 20 of them achieved full professorships in institutions worldwide. In addition to his scientific interests, Bo Siesjo had an intense interest in art that led him to establish an art collection concentrated mainly on modern national art. Bo was married with Bodil, and they had three children, Peter, Viveka, and Bjorn. All honor to his name.