一本道

Boel Berner sneaks into Link枚ping University. Her being awarded a prize is still a secret so right now she wants to avoid bumping into any old colleagues. Although she has prepared some credible excuses for her presence, she would prefer not to use them.

We sit down on a secluded sofa. She shows her latest book. It is called Mat, mis盲r och ett medicinskt mysterium (鈥淔ood, misery and a medical mystery鈥�) and describes researchers鈥� fight against the now almost forgotten disease pellagra caused by vitamin deficiency. Medical history, quite simply. But no matter what she writes and researches, she thinks there is a common denominator.

鈥淚鈥檓 curious about how people solve practical problems and challenges 鈥� even very tricky things. This could concern technology or what I鈥檝e worked a lot with in recent years, medicine,鈥� she says.

Grew up in an engineering office

Boel Berner was a professor at TEMAT (Technology and Social Change) at Link枚ping University between 1991 and 2012 when she retired. She is a sociologist but has also studied psychology, political science, literary studies and economics. Her doctoral thesis from 1981 was about the work and importance of engineers both historically and in the present.

If you want to find a personal connection, it is there. She literally grew up in an engineering office. Her father had a degree in engineering and his office was located in the family's villa in J枚nk枚ping. His title was Public Agricultural Engineer.

鈥淭here was one in each county. They were involved in draining or regulating lakes and rivers and getting dams for hydroelectric power stations built. I thought being an engineer was natural. In my world, all men were engineers.鈥�

Boel Berner鈥檚 mother was a teacher, active in associations working to modernise Swedish homes. This would also provide inspiration for later research. Studying at university was also natural in her family, so Boel ended up at Lund. She had no specific plan. This was not necessary in the 1960s and 70s. You just studied any subject that seemed exciting and interesting and saw what happened, according to her.

Revolutionary years

And a lot happened. In the 70s, Boel wrote books and articles. She worked in England and France. During the International Women鈥檚 Year in 1975, she was commissioned to write a report for the Swedish Higher 一本道 Authority. The subject was women in science and technology, and this was probably the first report on the subject.

鈥淎t that time, people were just beginning to wonder why there were so few women in technology. I鈥檝e often wanted to look at this the other way: Why are there so many men?鈥�

These were revolutionary times when most things were questioned. She was involved in initiating the research topics of women鈥檚 studies and gender studies. She was the editor of several magazines. She participated in heated discussions about the design of the doctoral programme.

鈥淲e did a lot ourselves that the university couldn鈥檛 manage. You learned that changing and developing the programme wasn鈥檛 impossible.鈥�

This was something she found useful when she left Lund University for Link枚ping in 1991. You were expected to take your own initiatives, organise large research projects and obtain funding. Here, she was also able to combine her interest in technology with all the other knowledge she had accumulated.

Interdisciplinary science under attack

Boel Berner likes looking at things from many different perspectives and is interested in topics that lend themselves to this. Blood is one example. Housewives, technology and the modernisation of Swedish society are others. Mixing different types of scientific knowledge is necessary to capture several aspects. During her professional life, she has experienced how interdisciplinary science has become increasingly accepted.

鈥淎t Lund, I taught history of technology to technologists for many years. The course is voluntary, but there are always about one hundred students. I don鈥檛 think that would have been possible in the 1980s.鈥�

The complex social challenges of today have probably also contributed to the growth of interdisciplinary science. It is simply not possible to tackle them without doing so from many aspects at the same time. That is why she finds the attacks on universities now taking place in the United States a major cause for concern.

鈥淚t鈥檚 a terrible attack on intellectual work. And much of that is interdisciplinary - such as public health research and climate research. If this is stopped, it鈥檚 very serious because we lose a lot of knowledge.鈥�

The ceremony for the Ingemar Ingemarsson interdisciplinarity prize will be on 10 October 2025.

Translation: Anneli Mosell