Karolinska Institutet

Have ultimate responsibility for the PhD education of more than 2000 PhD students, through leading the Committee for Doctoral Education.
Developed the ’Exit Poll’ and ’Supervisor Green Light approval’ among other innovations in improving quality assurance of our doctoral education.
Have educated over 8000 supervisors on 5 continents.

Academic Vice President of Doctoral Education

Leading an active research group striving to modulate the courses of currently incurable neurodegenerative diseases through development of novel molecule-or cell-based immunotherapies.
We received the top grant for neuroscience from the Swedish Medical Research Council and have published a series of significant research publications within the last few years.

Professor in Immunotherapy within Neuroinflammation

Postdoctoral fellow funded sequentially by the Wellcome Trust UK (Travel Fellow), Karolinska Institutet Guest researcher and Kung Gustav V's 80års fund before becoming a senior research scientist employed by KI. Initially studied African Sleeping Sickness with respect to immunomodulatory proteins produced by the parasite Trypanosoma brucei and their effect on host immune cells. Later, began working with models of autoimmunity. Cell biology, biochemistry.

Senior researcher

A central director of doctoral education with responsibility for all PhD students at KI. Specific tasks include development of Quality Assurance within doctoral education at KI, conflict management and education of PhD supervisors/students.

Central Director of Doctoral Education

Responsibility for over 260 PhD students within the Dept. Admissions, monitoring of educational progress and administration of doctoral education. Responsibility for one administrator.

Director of Doctoral Education within Dept of Clinical Neurosciences

With respect to student education, I teach during at least 4 courses per year for medical undergraduates or PhD students each year, as well as co-organizing a doctoral education course.

Assoc Prof

Diamyd Medical AB

Initially conducted quality assurance of GMP-produced recombinant protein, as well as developing biochemical and immunoassays for technical transfer to outsourced biotechnology companies. Formulated DiamydTM vaccine and conducted 12 preclinical studies as part of preclinical portfolio. Consultant regarding immunological aspects of ongoing clinical trials.

Consultant

Karolinksa Institutet

Having academic responsibility for research, undergraduate and postgraduate collaborations with international partners, both universities and other organizations.
During my appointment we developed guidelines for ’Policy for strategic partnerships with international higher education institutions, companies, and organisations’ and ’Resources for responsible internationalisation.’

Chairperson of the Internationalisation Board

ORPHEUS

ORPHEUS - ORganisation for PHd education in biomedicine and health sciences in the EUropean System.

ORPHEUS is an organization of biomedical and health science faculties and institutions that promotes and disseminated best practice in PhD training globally.

(N.B. This is an extra position of trust and not a new employment position - so I am still employed as Professor at KI.)

President

London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine

Studied interaction of the parasite Leishmania donovani with mouse macrophages. Cell biology, biochemistry.

Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Professor of NeuroImmunotherapy l Dean of Doctoral Education l Empowering professional leadership and shaping PhD education l Have trained 8000+ PhD supervisors l #MADBob

ORCID:
0000-0003-4990-509X

Born and educated in the UK, conducted a PhD at University College London in the field of parasitology. Moved to Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden in 1994 and became Professor of Immunotherapy in Neurological diseases there in 2013. Leads a research group focusing on immunotherapy in ALS, Alzheimer’s disease and Multiple Sclerosis. Currently Academic Vice President of Doctoral Education. Past Chair of the International Council at Karolinska Institutet. Past president of the international doctoral education organisation ORPHEUS. Honorary Doctorate from the Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy (UMF) Cluj-Napoca, Romania (2023).

2008-09 – 2018-12 Karolinska Institutet (KI); Central Director of Doctoral Education (Quality Assurance (QA); Doctoral education programmes; PhD supervisor training 

2005-10 – 2018-12 KI; Dept of Clinical Neuroscience Director of  Doctoral Education (Selection of new and monitoring of 286 PhD students)

2015-2022 ORPHEUS President

1999-05 – present 	KI; Centre for Molecular Medicine (CMM) Independent Research Group Leader (Research in autoimmunity/cell biology)

1997-01 – present	Diamyd Medical AB	Scientific advisor; 
Consultant/Part-time employment (QA; Preclinical studies; Vaccine formulation)

1997-01 – 1999-04	KI; CMM	Kung Gustav V:s 80års jubileumsfond Post-doctoral fellow (Research in autoimmunity)

1996-01 – 1997-01	KI; CMM	Dept of Medicine Post-doctoral fellow (Research in autoimmunity)

1994-04 – 1995-12	KI; Microbiology & Tumor Biology Centre (MTC) KI Guest Researcher (Research in parasite immunology)

1994-04 – 1996-04	KI; MTC	Wellcome Trust Travel Fellow	(Research in parasite immunology)

1991-06 – 1994-04	London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine	Medical Research Council (MRC) Post-doctoral fellow (Research in parasite immunology)

1990-01 – 1991-06	University College London (UCL) MRC Post-doctoral fellow	 (Research in neurochemistry)

Specialties: Scientific research - neuroimmunology, cell biology, protein chemistry, vaccinology
Doctoral education - pedagogy, teaching, administration

The worst PhD student-supervisor conflict I’ve ever seen?


After 20 years of mediating them, people expect a single dramatic story.

But I do not have one - because every conflict feels like the worst one when you are sitting with the people living through it.

In seven years as Dean of Doctoral Education at Karolinska Institutet, I have seen students sit across from me shaking, crying.

I have seen supervisors close the door and whisper that they don’t know how to fix what is gone wrong.

I have read the emails that make your stomach drop.

I have seen PhD students who were:
 • ignored for months
 • talked down to
 • made to feel small or ‘not good enough’
 • stripped of confidence
 • bullied into silence
 • pushed into serious distress

A PhD is supposed to build a person - not break them.

But research is stressful.

Supervisors are overloaded.

Teams are stretched.

People make mistakes. I have made them too.

Here is the truth we rarely say out loud:
 * Unresolved conflict destroys people - and research.
 * Happy researchers work.
 Ä Unhappy researchers withdraw, slow down or burn out.

This is not a side issue.

It is the issue.

Conflict management is not admin.

It is leadership.

And most conflicts could have been prevented with earlier trust, clarity and communication.

If we want strong research and strong graduates, we must stop treating ‘people issues’ as secondary.

They are the foundation.

Follow this discussion of doctoral education via #MADBob 
If you are interested in personal or group leadership training for academic supervisors/leaders, write me a DM. I have taught over 8000 supervisors to date

Robert Harris

Born and educated in the UK, conducted a PhD at University College London in the field of parasitology. Moved to Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden in 1994 and became Professor of Immunotherapy in Neurological diseases there in 2013. Leads a research group focusing on immunotherapy in ALS, Alzheimer’s disease and Multiple Sclerosis. Currently Academic Vice President of Doctoral Education. Past Chair of the International Council at Karolinska Institutet. Past president of the international doctoral education organisation ORPHEUS. Honorary Doctorate from the Iuliu Hatieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy (UMF) Cluj-Napoca, Romania (2023).

2008-09 – 2018-12 Karolinska Institutet (KI); Central Director of Doctoral Education (Quality Assurance (QA); Doctoral education programmes; PhD supervisor training 

2005-10 – 2018-12 KI; Dept of Clinical Neuroscience Director of  Doctoral Education (Selection of new and monitoring of 286 PhD students)

2015-2022 ORPHEUS President

1999-05 – present 	KI; Centre for Molecular Medicine (CMM) Independent Research Group Leader (Research in autoimmunity/cell biology)

1997-01 – present	Diamyd Medical AB	Scientific advisor; 
Consultant/Part-time employment (QA; Preclinical studies; Vaccine formulation)

1997-01 – 1999-04	KI; CMM	Kung Gustav V:s 80års jubileumsfond Post-doctoral fellow (Research in autoimmunity)

1996-01 – 1997-01	KI; CMM	Dept of Medicine Post-doctoral fellow (Research in autoimmunity)

1994-04 – 1995-12	KI; Microbiology & Tumor Biology Centre (MTC) KI Guest Researcher (Research in parasite immunology)

1994-04 – 1996-04	KI; MTC	Wellcome Trust Travel Fellow	(Research in parasite immunology)

1991-06 – 1994-04	London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine	Medical Research Council (MRC) Post-doctoral fellow (Research in parasite immunology)

1990-01 – 1991-06	University College London (UCL) MRC Post-doctoral fellow	 (Research in neurochemistry)

Specialties: Scientific research - neuroimmunology, cell biology, protein chemistry, vaccinology
Doctoral education - pedagogy, teaching, administration

Academic leadership training I Professor of NeuroImmunotherapy l Dean of Doctoral Education l Empowering professional leadership and shaping PhD education l Have trained 8000+ PhD supervisors l #MADBob

What 44 PhD students have taught me - the part I never expected


When I supervised my very first PhD student, I thought my job was to have all the answers.

Forty-four students later, I know it’s the opposite.

Every student taught me something I did not know I needed:
patience, how fragile confidence can be, how much courage it takes to ask for help, and how often silence in a meeting hides fear.

Some thrived with independence.

Others needed structure, reassurance, or simply someone who believed in them a little louder than they believed in themselves.

One student once told me:
 “I don’t need you to be perfect. I just need to know you’re on my side.”
 
I have carried that line with me ever since.

A few truths I have learned:
• You cannot supervise well if you do not see the human in front of you.
 • Respect and trust are slow to build, but quick to lose.
 • Students remember how you made them feel far more than your feedback.

What makes me proud is that I am still in contact with almost all of them - some send career updates, some ask for advice, some simply say thank you.

What they don’t realise is that I am the one who is grateful.

They made me a better supervisor - and a better human.

To those 44 students:
 Thank you. You shaped me more than you know.

Follow this discussion of doctoral education via #MADBob 
If you are interested in personal or group leadership training for academic supervisors/leaders, write me a DM. I have taught over 8000 supervisors to date

Why my PhD became the turning point of my career - even though it nearly broke me


People assume my PhD must have been smooth, since I now teach supervisors and lead doctoral education.

It was not. Not even close.

In my first year, the only two PhD students in the lab graduated.

My main supervisor disappeared for two years to write a textbook.

I was left alone with an impossible project and no real support.

It was one of the loneliest periods of my life.

But it taught me the most important lesson of my entire career:
Ask for help.
And keep asking.

I knocked on every door in the department. Most could not help - but they tried.

Then one day I wandered into a basement lab and met a fierce Scottish group leader who said:
“Why don’t you try this method?”

That single idea saved my PhD.

My co-supervisor could not help scientifically, but he showed me kindness - took me to conferences, made me feel valued. At that stage, that mattered more than he knew.

My thesis ended up with a huge Methods section and a tiny Results section because I had to rebuild everything from scratch. It was messy, exhausting… and utterly formative.

That painful period gave me three things I still rely on today:
1.    A broad technical skill set - because I had to learn everything myself.
2.    A deep understanding of good and bad supervision - which now drives my work.
3.    An unshakable belief that people will help you if you keep asking.

You just have to keep knocking on doors - even the ones hidden in the basement.

Follow this discussion of doctoral education via #MADBob 

If you are interested in personal or group leadership training for academic supervisors/leaders, write me a DM. I have taught over 8000 supervisors to date.

A PhD does not have to be a lonely experience.


But I have met far too many students who whisper that exact feeling: “I feel alone.”

You can hear it in their voice - quiet, hesitant, almost apologetic.

 As if loneliness were a personal failure instead of a completely human reaction to an overwhelming journey.

I remember one student who told me, “I moved across the world to chase this dream… and now I eat lunch alone almost every day.”
Another said, “Everyone else seems to have a network. I’m still trying to find out where I belong.”
And perhaps the saddest one: “I don’t want to worry my family back home, so I just keep it to myself.”

These stories stay with you.

Yes, a PhD is officially an ‘individual project.’
Yes, only your name is on the thesis cover.
And yes, much of the work really does happen in empty labs at strange hours, when the world outside seems to have forgotten you exist.

But here is the truth academia does not say loudly enough:
Independence is a learning goal.
Isolation is a warning sign.

Human beings simply don’t thrive alone.
   Not in research.
   Not in life.
   Not ever.

The most successful PhD journeys I have seen were not powered by brilliance or resilience alone - they were powered by connection.
The peer who says, “I had a day like that too.”
The postdoc who shows you the trick that finally makes your experiment work.
The supervisor who notices when your energy has changed - and checks in with you.
The friend who drags you out for coffee when you start disappearing into your laptop.

These small moments add up. They are what keep people going.

But here is something many students never get told:
Feeling connected is not luck.
   It is not extroversion.
   It is not automatic.
   It is built.
   It is a skill, and a shared responsibility.

• Universities need to create PhD environments where community is more than just a brochure word.
 • Supervisors need to help students feel seen, heard, respected and genuinely supported.
 • Departments need structures that encourage collaboration, not silent suffering.
 • And PhD students need spaces, not pressure, to make friends, ask for help, share fears, celebrate wins, and be honest about the hard days.

When we choose connection over silence, something powerful happens:
  People learn faster.
  They grow stronger.
  They stay healthier.
  They enjoy the journey more and they finish it more confidently.

We Make A Difference (MAD) to each other - sometimes in ways we don’t even realize.

So here is my invitation:
Look around your community.
  Who seems a little quieter lately?
  Who sits alone at seminars?
  Who vanished from the common room?

Be the person who notices.
Be the person who asks.
Be the person who connects.

That is how we build a research culture where no one ever has to feel alone.

Follow this discussion of doctoral education via #MADBob

147 new PhD Doctors hats at City Hall

One of the most enjoyable tasks I have as Dean of Doctoral Education at Karolinska Institutet is giving the newly graduated PhDs their diplomas and Doctors hats at Stockholm City Hall. 
Last night I got to do that for 147 new doctors. I gave a speech which included a wish to cease with stereotypic judgements of people, illustrated by the knotted handkerchief on my head which is a stereotype of an Englishman.
What a great celebration we had!

Why PhD students must get HELP


A PhD may be an individual journey, but no PhD student should ever feel that they have to walk it alone.

Students need HELP - and this is what that really means:
H -> Home
 Feeling at home in a community.
 PhD students thrive when they feel they belong somewhere and not just work somewhere.
E -> Experience
 The day-to-day practice of being a researcher.
 Mistakes, experiments, failures, breakthroughs - all this makes the real growth happen.
L -> Lifelong Learning
 The skills that last longer than any project:
 communication, collaboration, critical thinking, self-awareness.
P -> Professional Growth
 Developing the confidence to take initiative, to make decisions and to care for others - the early beginnings of leadership.

A PhD student should learn to ask for HELP, and the research community has a responsibility to offer it.

That is how we Make A Difference (MAD) for each other.

It was the most important lesson of my own PhD, and I could never have completed it alone.

Now I am privileged to pay that support forward to new generations of researchers.

‘MAD’ means ‘Making A Difference,’ and nothing else. PhD supervisors have both the professional responsibility and the wonderful possibility to empower their PhD students to be MAD themselves in society.

Follow this discussion of doctoral education via #MADBob 

If you are interested in personal or group leadership training for academic supervisors/leaders, write me a DM. I have taught over 8000 supervisors to date

If you are a professional educator, this is a great opportunity to increase your knowledge and extend your toolkit for approaching modern challenges in academic education practices, including career planning.AND it’s a great lot of fun at the same time. AND you can’t beat the location - sun, sea and super company. Secure your place ASAP.

If you’ve ever changed a course, tried a new teaching idea, or struggled with large classes, you probably already have an abstract for FEBS ETC 2026.

Many colleagues tell us:
“I don’t have real educational research – just experiences.”

At FEBS ETC 2026, that is exactly what we want to hear about.

We welcome abstracts on:
- Innovative teaching approaches and safe learning environments
- AI in education, digital transformation and hybrid teaching
- Assessment, large classes, active learning, lab experiences
- PhD education, supervision, transferable skills, career development
- Equity–Diversity–Inclusion practices and well-being in education 

Short talks and posters can be based on:
- Research studies (quantitative, qualitative, mixed methods)
- Case studies, pilots, “what worked and what didn’t” in your teaching context 

📌 Abstract deadline: 15 January 2026
 📌 Max. 250 words – your story in a focused form

If FEBS ETC 2024 made you think “next time I should share our own experience”, this is that next time.

🔗 Details and submission: febsetc.org

Nino Sincic Robert Harris Ly Villo Francesco Malatesta Didier Picard Jerka Dumic frank michelangeli Ali Burak Özkaya Steve Rutherford Connie Pritchard Hasan Kazdağlı Zvonimir Mlinarić Aviad Haramati Nirma Samarawickrema Matthew Jones Matthew Clemson Elena Hoffer, PhD Knut Teigen Allegra Via Hakan Abacıoğlu Manuel Joao Costa ANGEL HERRAEZ Miguel A. De la Rosa FEBS FEBS Junior Section Teresa Sarria Ponce

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