Record donation realises new medical imaging centre at KTH
An enriching experience for couple Kerstin and Rune Jonasson who have been involved in creating the new research centre.
“We are delighted to be able to contribute to an investment that provides long-term effects and benefits a broad area of research. It is our hope that the donation will produce research results that give better diagnostics and therapeutic opportunities and therefore help many people,” says Rune Jonasson about the couple’s donation of SEK 70 million to KTH in 2011.
The gift is one of the largest private donations in the history of KTH and the greater part of it will be used to invest in medical technology infrastructure.
“Personally speaking, this donation is my way of thanking KTH, where I completed my degree in engineering physics at the end of the 1940s. Indirectly it is my way of also thanking Karolinska Institutet where I trained to become a Medical doctor, as well as Karolinska Hospital where I spent much of my working life in the department for clinical physiology at the Thoracic Surgery Clinic. A further goal of this donation should be to promote research partnerships in the field with South Korea, as a way of thanking the country for its generosity when my wife Kerstin was a nurse in the Swedish field hospital in Pusan during the Korean War.” says Rune Jonasson.
The couple have been actively involved in the creation of an important research centre at KTH and this, in turn, has led to many new acquaintances and experiences.
“What is highly enjoyable about this experience is that we get to know how the money is being put to use,” says Kerstin; and Rune agrees.