Lennart Johansson

Professor Lennart Johansson unexpectedly passed away in his home in Umeå, Sweden on March 3, 2020, at the age of 68.

He received his basic academic education in mathematics, physics and radiation physics at Lund University. After two years as a medical physicist at Malmö General Hospital, he worked for 10 years as an expert on ionizing radiation at the Swedish Defense Research Institute, first in Stockholm and later in Umeå. It was during that time that in 1985 he also got his PhD from the University of Gothenburg, after having been a PhD student on distance. His thesis dealt with patient radiation doses in investigations with radiopharmaceuticals, a topic he was familiar with already during his period in Malmö. His dissertation became an important contribution to the ICRP Publication 53 about “Radiation dose to patients from radiopharmaceuticals”, which was published in 1987. Lennart left FOA in 1989 for a position as hospital physicist at the Radiophysics Laboratory at Norrland University Hospital in Umeå, with responsibilities in both nuclear medicine and radiotherapy. In 1996 he was appointed associate professor of radiation physics at the Department of Radiation Sciences at Umeå University, and in 2010 professor at the same University. In the same year, he also became Head of the Radiophysics Laboratory at the University Hospital. Lennart continued to combine his position as a hospital physicist with research, supervision of PhD students and lectures.

Lennart has been a member of ICRP Task Group 36 on radiopharmaceutical dosimetry since its start in 1981, and continued to play a central role in the group over the years. In particular, he has acted as the group secretary from 1989 until now. He has also been active as corresponding member in other ICRP task groups as well as member of IAEA working parties and EURADOS groups.

In addition to radiation dosimetry, his research was focused towards environmental radiology, radiation biology and radiation epidemiology. After the Chernobyl disaster he made important contributions through measurements and dose estimates for different population groups in northern Sweden and especially for the most vulnerable Sami groups. He was often engaged as an expert in evaluation of research, and as opponent in public defenses. Since 2008, Lennart was a member of the Swedish National Council for Nuclear Waste and he was a member of the National Committee for Radiation Protection Research under the Royal Academy of Sciences since 1997.

Lennart Johansson was an internationally regarded and esteemed researcher and teacher in radiation dosimetry with applications for patients, professionals and the general public.He combined deep knowledge in his field with wisdom, kindness and humility in his contacts with colleagues and in relation to his work. It has been a privilege to work with him. Lennart is deeply missed by all of us.

For ICRP TG 36:

Sören Mattsson, Dietmar Nosske, Augusto Giussani