In memory Lennart Nilsson
He showed us our inside in new ways Text: Jenny Ryltenius Lennart Nilsson visualised medical research and helped millions of people to understand the human body. Throughout his career he continued to push the boundaries for what is possible in medical photography. Among other things he photographed the process of fertilisation, the viruses that cause HIV and the parasite that carries malaria. He worked closely with researchers at Karolinska Institutet from the 1970s until he was more than 90 year old. His driving force lay 50
Medical Science–2017
in “showing what is close to us, what we all know, in new ways” and his foremost objective was to surprise and touch people. As proof of his success he received a great many prestigious prizes and awards and became a professor when the government awarded him the title in 2009. Lennart Nilsson passed away on 28 January 2017 at the age of 94.
Photography: TT/Lennart Nilsson (the egg cell), Ulf Sirborn.
The Egg, just prior to ovulation, surrounded by nutritient cells like a radiant wreth.