Jonas Blomberg
Today we had the sad news that Emeritus Professor of Clinical Virology Jonas Blomberg from Uppsala University in Sweden had passed away.
Over the years whilst the charity has been making huge efforts to encourage and facilitate international collaboration into research into ME then we have come
into contact with hundreds of researchers in different research fields, in different institutes and in different countries.
There are many researchers whom we have known who have become trusted friends.
One of those researchers whom we have called a friend of the charity and a friend of people with ME was Jonas Blomberg.
One liked Jonas instinctively from the beginning. He was the type of person who would always give an unbiased and objective view on science - with no pretensions or separate agenda.
Jonas was the epitome of a researcher with integrity, honesty, approachability and scientific skills.
Jonas came to one of our early international conferences after being encouraged by a member of RME Sverige.
Following that meeting we invited Jonas to our conferences and to our first Colloquium.
He was invited and attended every one of these events since that time. His was one of the first names that we entered when planning these events ten months before.
Such was the level of trust and friendship that we asked Jonas to be a chair for many Colloquium sessions and sum up conclusions from the Colloquiums.
Integrity – always.
Jonas was scheduled to chair, once again, the Thinking the Future – Young/ECR Conference in London in May – having successfully chaired last year’s inaugural event. Jonas would also have been attending and chairing this year's 'Conference and Colloquium and Thinking the Future events.
The news of his sudden death comes as a major shock to all at the charity.
This affects all of us and is a great loss to ME.
Our memories of Jonas are of the best - and he will be greatly missed by all.
“He was a giant and his support for our endeavours was immeasurable What a tragedy"
- Dr Ian Gibson
