Living legend in surgery: Professor Stig Bengmark
The editorial board of HepatoBiliary Surgery and Nutrition (HBSN) was honored to have Prof. Stig Bengmark (Figure 1) join the editorial board as one of the founding members when HBSN was launched in 2012. As a world-renowned surgeon in the last few decades, Prof. Bengmark has made great contributions to hepatobiliary surgery and the nutritional field during his career. He has earned numerous titles and honors among which, he was the second surgeon in history to become a member of Academia Europea. Prof. Bengmark was the founder and president of the World Association of Hepato-Pancreato-Biliary (HPB) Surgery, which afterwards merged with the International Biliary Association (IBA) in 1994 to create the biggest HPB society, currently known as the World HPB Association. He is one of the three greatest European surgeons in recent history who were nick-named the “three Bs” (surnames start with B)—the Bach, Beethoven, and Brahms of hepatic surgery—Bengmark, Bismuth, and Blumgart (once coined by the renowned German HPB surgeon Michael Trede). “Stig has always had unlimited, unexpected, broad-spectrum, bright new ideas based on his unique observations that ordinary researchers would have ignored.” said Prof. Yilei Mao, the editor of HBSN, who worked with Prof. Bengmark as his PhD candidate in the early 1990s.
Prof. Bengmark was born on April 10, 1929, in Östervåla, Sweden. He graduated from Lund University, where he obtained an MD in 1956 and a PhD in 1958 at the Medical Faculty. He completed his residency in Sahlgren Hospital in Gothenburg and built up his first research laboratory. Based on his outstanding scientific qualifications, Prof. Bengmark returned to Lund to chair the Surgical Department when Philip Sandblom left in 1971. He was the Professor of Surgery, Academic Head, and Surgeon-in-Chief at the Lund University until 1994. He has then still been active in academic activities. Prof. Bengmark has been a Visiting and Honorary Professor in countless surgical centers worldwide. Since 1999, he has been an Honorary Visiting Professor to University College of London, London University, UK. Last year, at the age of 85 years, Prof. Bengmark became an Honorary Member of the Japanese Surgical Society. This society only elects one honorary member per year.
Prof. Bengmark has dedicated his career to surgery of the liver, pancreas, and biliary system, and was one of the first in Europe to perform liver resections. During his two decades of leadership, the Surgery Department in Lund University and Lund University Hospital had important developments. More than one model for care was developed and tested during Prof. Bengmark’s stay in Lund. He might be the only surgeon in the world who has led such broad research projects. His research areas include portal hypertension, liver cancer ischemia, bacterial translocation, enteral nutrition, and critical care. His fields of scholarship include clinical infections, intensive care, chronic diseases, microbiology, microbiota, probiotics, lifestyle and disease, nutrition, food, and health. Translational and integrative medicine has been a topic of interest in more recent years. Recently, he has been interested in the hypothesis of possible benefits to health by letting the metabolic system “rest” for 18 hours a day by skipping breakfast. He has published over 1,000 scientific papers and book chapters.
Prof. Bengmark takes his position on the editorial board of HBSN seriously. He has contributed high quality articles to the journal, and provided advice and suggestions to its future development, and desires with joint effort to bring HBSN to a higher level.
Acknowledgements
Disclosure: The author declares no conflict of interest.
