I am 79 years old but still I work as Professor at UiT The Arctic University of Norway. Moreover, I work as Senior Professor at Karlstad University in Sweden and I am Professor Emeritus at both Uppsala University in Sweden. I have also worked as Professor in Mathematics at Luleå University of Technology for a long period and also at Lund University for a shorter time. From 2005 I am also honorary professor at Eurasian National University, Astana, Kazakhstan. I have been supervisor for 71 students with PhD exams and additional 14 with Licentiate exams. At the moment I am supervisor for 5 PhD students in mathematics or engineering mathematics at four different universities but most I work in Luleå at what guest researchers and PhD students call PIEM( Persson Institute of Engineering Mathematics) equipped with the well known Hotel Infinity. The areas of research for my students and current positions can be found on the link PhD exams below.
I was the President of the Swedish Mathematical Society 1996-1998 and I have been ordinary member 1995-2010 (secretary during 1995-2002) of the National Committee of Mathematics equipped with the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. I have also been chairman 4 years for the board at Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet). which distributes governments money for research in the mathematical sciences. Moreover, I initiated Center of Applied Mathematics at Luleå University of Technology 1995 and was its Director till 2005. During 2008-2009 I was director of Center of Interdisciplinary Mathematics (CIM) at Uppsala University.
If you want to know more about me and my scientific work and the awards I have received you can look at my Curriculum Vitae and my list of publications below. See also my remarkable list of coauthors/coeditors (at the moment around 170 persons from 42 different countries!).
I am also interested in berry picking, fishing and sports, mostly skiings. In particular, I have so far participated and always finalized the famous Swedish ski competition Vasa run (Vasaloppet) at 76 different occasions (48 times the ordinary day and 28 times as so called “Open track” the week before). For more information see the link “sport” below. This year I was awarded a prestigious medal with number 56 = the amount of skiers who have succeeded to fulfill this 90 km skiing competition in 50 years (during all of its more than 100 years history).
I still live mostly in the beautiful town Luleå in Sweden, where my house was well known as “Hotel Infinity” since so many students and researchers around the world have lived there for longer or shorter periods (two PhD students from Ghana lived there 3 years). So much of the supervision have been done there and in the equipped PIEM (see above). From 2021 I have moved to a nice flat in south harbor in Luleå and the famous Hilbert construction (Hotel Infinity) and my own construction PIEM have accompanied me there. This means that, miraculously enough, I survived the dramatic year 2018 and recovered in a remarkable way.
Remark: A short description of the dramatic year 2018 can be found in the link “additional information” below. Shortly the following happened:
a) I got a very serious heart attack,
b) I was unexpectedly divorced from Luleå University of Technology (the university of his heart in 43 years).
But I am known as a fighter from early childhood when I was the only who survived of 9 children in the family.
So also under these heavy conditions a) and b) I, miraculously enough, with support of understanding collaborators. friends, family and several universities around the world, could continue my successful PhD education and research, now even more successfully with PIEM and Hotel Infinity as the main bases. In fact, in the period 2018-2024 I have published more than 50 papers in Journals, two new books and 12 PhD students have finalized successfully their PhD exams with me as a responsible scientific supervisor (out of the the 71 mentioned above). Moreover, at the moment I am a supervisor for 5 PhD students . See the link “PhD exams” below for the detailed information.
A professional photographer named Patrik Öhman took some great photos of me 2019-09-09 and later on 2020-09-10.
They can be used in publications and similar after asking me for permissions. Of course also Patrik has permissions to use these pictures on his own blogg
