Mr. Gunnar Saeter, professor of the Center for Comprehensive Oncology at the University Clinic of Oslo (N), and a member of the Scientific and Social Advisory Board (TTTT), which assists the work of the Chairperson of the Board of the Count István Tisza Foundation for the University of Debrecen, visited the University on Friday. The Norwegian professor gave a presentation on some new opportunities in cancer research.

The Norwegian professor was welcome by György Kossa, Chairperson of the Board of Trustees, Péter Nagy, Chairman of the Scientific and Social Advisory Board, and György Balla, member of the Board of Trustees. Mr. Gunnar Saeter visited the main building of the University of Debrecen, met with the management of UD, and learnt about the educational and academic activities of the university at first hand.

György Kossa, Chairperson of the Advisory Board of the Count István Tisza Foundation for the University of Debrecen, stressed: the professor’s visit is a great honor for the university and they will continue to count on the Norwegian specialist’s expertise in the future, too.

-  Professor Gunnar Saeter may help the international collaborations of the University of Debrecen, and can contribute to the university’s scientific activity methodologies with which he himself has become familiar during his professional practice. The distinguished expert on oncology has an academic record in education, research as well as in the international pharmaceuticals industry, having taken part in a great deal of research that is decisive in this field. He is a strong bastion for the University of Debrecen, enabling the university to strengthen international trends that could serve the interests of medical training, said György Kossa.

This was Professor Gunnar Saeter’s first visit to the University of Debrecen. During the press conference he explained that he had gained a positive impression of the institution had a great impression and the high-level activity that he found here, and is more than happy to be of assistance to the Board. 

- I wish to gain more information about the clinics and the way patient care works here. I intend to help the university’s scientific work, in which I consider thinking together and innovation to be the most important factors. An integrated approach to research and science as well as patient care is a basic task; a close working relationship between medicine, practical patient care and research is indispensable in today’s world. Institutions and universities that are involved in healing need to work in close cooperation. The University of Debrecen is a very strong institution and has strong foundations for the implementation of this integration, the professor added.

Péter Nagy, Chairperson of TTTT said that Professor Gunnar Saeter is an internationally recognized expert of his field, and is ranked among the leading oncologists of the world due to his work and outstanding results. He added that his experience will greatly contribute to the further improvement of the University of Debrecen.


- The model change has opened up an extraordinary opportunity for the management of the university and the Board of Trustees, which can result in serious advancement in terms of quality indicators in a moral sense, too.  Professor Saeter has immense expertise and experience in hospital management. We have jointly reviewed the past and present of several institutions and the Professor can greatly contribute to the forward-pointing work of the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, the Chairperson of the Board said.

Like Swedish Professor Elias Arnér, Professor Gunnar Saeter has also added his signature to the registration course book which will contain the signatures of all foreign members of the Advisory Board as a memento of their respective visits to the University of Debrecen. After the press conference those interested could attend Professor Gunnar Saeter’s lecture „Translational cancer research: strategy, priorities and innovation management” in the auditorium of the Learning Center.

Press Office