Mr. Ole Petter Ottersen

Ole Petter Ottersen is a neuroscientist who served as the President of the University of Oslo from 2009 to 2017 and as the President of Karolinska Institutet in Sweden from 2017 to 2023. Ottersen was the Director of one of Norway’s Centres of Excellence (Centre for Molecular Biology and Neuroscience) from 2002 to 2009 and the coordinator of a Nordic Centre of Excellence in Molecular Medicine, funded by NordForsk, from 2005 to 2009. Ottersen has led one of UiO’s interdisciplinary initiatives (EMBIO; now UiO: Life Science) and one of the major national programs (Functional Genomics in Norway) of the Norwegian Research Council. From 2006 to 2009, Ottersen was Chief Editor of Neuroscience – the official journal of the International Brain Research Organisation (IBRO). He served as the Founding Chair (2016-2017) and Acting General Secretary (2023-2024) of the Guild of European Research-Intensive Universities – a European university network headquartered in Brussels that aims to contribute to the EU’s research, health, and innovation agendas. Ottersen has coordinated two neuroscience projects under the EU Framework Programme and is currently a member of the Governing Board of EBRAINS.