Next Breath & WFF 2021
From Water to Air; Scientific Pathways towards a Clearer, Cleaner Future.
Erling Norrby
Royal Swedish Academy



Talk Title — 
From Poliomyelitis to the COVID-19 Pandemic. Reflections by a Virologist
"Viruses are the most prevalent biological entities in our world. They have played a central role in the evolutionary developments of progressively more advanced forms of life. In special cases they may cause disease that can spread effectively in our present day global society. The advance of science and technology, not least in the field of molecular biology, allows a control of pandemics.”

Erling Norrby 
Erling Norrby has an MD and PhD from the Karolinska Institute, the School of Medicine, Stockholm. He was a professor of Virology for 25 years at the Karolinska Institute, the School of Medicine in Stockholm, and during these years he was heavily involved in the selection process for the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He then served as Permanent Secretary at the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences for six years. In this position he had an overriding role for the prizes in physics and chemistry and was a member of the Board of the Nobel Foundation. Currently, Norrby researches the Nobel Archives, which are opened for scholarly research 50 years after a prize is awarded. He has written many books, among which: Nobel Prizes and Life Sciences, and Nobel Prizes and Nature’s Surprises.
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