2026-01-09

Professor Ingemar Wadsö passed away on November 6th, 2025 at the age of 95 years. He obtained his bachelor’s degree in 1954 and his PhD in 1962, both at Lund University. Ingemar then remained scientifically active at his Alma Mater throughout his whole career, where he was appointed Professor in Thermochemistry in 1981, a position he kept until he retired in 1995.

During his whole scientific career, Ingemar’s research was focussed on calorimetric measurements. It was his mentor Stig Sunner, who then held the chair in Thermochemistry, who introduced him to the calorimetry field. In the 1950s, the primary challenge was to measure chemical reaction enthalpies, an area that was the speciality of Stig Sunner. Ingemar realized that, to widen the applications of the technique, one had to go for smaller sample volumes, which in turn required increased precision in the heat measurements. Ingemar persistently pursued this line of research and established himself as a world leading scientist in the emerging field of microcalorimetry.

The value of method development lies in its applications. Together with his research students, Ingemar initiated several cooperation with more problem-oriented scientists. Of particularly lasting value was the cooperation between Ingemar’s group and Stan Gill (University of Colorado) on the thermodynamic properties of the hydrophobic interaction, leading to a series of papers that still today hold a standing as standard references in the area. Ingemar also had a great interest in applying calorimetric methods to physiological problems and applications in clinical procedures. As an acknowledgement of these contributions, Ingemar was in 1992 appointed Honorary Doctor at the Faculty of Medicine in Lund.

In addition to his purely scientific activities, Ingemar was also very active in designing calorimeters for commercial applications. LKB in Bromma (Stockholm) was the first company that commercialized calorimeters designed by Ingemar and coworkers, and later the company Thermometric AB was founded by Ingemar’s coworker Jaak Suurkuusk. The company acted as a platform for commercialisation of innovations originating from Ingemar’s research. Such instruments are still used world-wide in both scientific and industrial laboratories with applications in development and characterization of new materials, drug preparations, fuels and batteries.

In the 1980s, the Division of Thermochemistry was merged with the Division of Physical Chemistry at the Faculty of Science. Calorimetric studies thus became a natural part of the scientific activities at Physical Chemistry, and Ingemar became a valued contributor to the community. After his retirement in 1995, Ingemar acted as a Professor Emeritus and he regularly visited the Department of Chemistry to continue his work on designing calorimeters. We will warmly remember Ingemar as an excellent scientist and a mild and humble person.