Uppsala University

Dag Hammarskjöld was a Swedish diplomat and economist. In 1953, Hammarskjöld became the youngest person to be appointed as the Secretary-General of the United Nations. He died in airplane crash in 1961. Dag Hammarskjöld became the first person to be honored with a Nobel Peace Prize posthumously.

August Strindberg was a Swedish playwright, painter, essayist, novelist, and poet. He wrote over 30 works of fiction and more than 60 plays in an illustrious career that spanned 40 years. Widely regarded as the father of modern Swedish literature, Strindberg is best remembered for his work The Red Room, which is considered the first modern Swedish novel.

Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden has been serving as the king of Sweden since the demise of his grandfather King Gustaf VI Adolf in 1973. He is currently the longest-reigning monarch in the history of Sweden. Apart from being passionate about the environment, agriculture, technology, and trade, the king is also fond of automobiles and owns many Porsche 911s.

Emanuel Swedenborg was a Swedish pluralistic-Christian philosopher, mystic, theologian, and scientist. Swedenborg started hogging the limelight after writing a book on the afterlife titled Heaven and Hell, which released in 1758. A prolific scientist and inventor, Swedenborg experienced spiritual awakening after which he started working on reforming Christianity. He even claimed that he could converse with angels and demons.

A Swedish physician, academic, and public speaker, Hans Rosling was the co-founder of Gapminder Foundation, that is known for the development the Trendalyzer software system. He gave several talks/lectures, presented television documentaries like Don’t Panic: The Truth about Population and also co-authored a bestselling book titled Factfulness. Additionally, he was a professor of international health at Karolinska Institute too.

Anders Jonas Ångström was a Swedish physicist best remembered for co-founding the science of spectroscopy. He is also renowned for his studies of terrestrial magnetism, astrophysics, heat transfer, and the aurora borealis. In 1850, Anders Jonas Ångström was made a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.  

Swedish king Gustaf V was the eldest son of King Oscar II. His motto was “With the people for the Fatherland.” Post-World War I, he became a mere constitutional monarch, as the parliamentary government came into full-fledged effect. He was also the first Swedish king to not have a formal coronation.

Anna Lindh was a Swedish lawyer and politician who served as the Minister for the Environment from 1994 to 1996. She then went on to serve as the Minister for Foreign Affairs from 1998 until her murder in 2003. In April 2004, Anna Lindh was honored posthumously by the EastWest Institute with the Statesman of the Year Award. 

Gustaf VI Adolf reigned as the king of Sweden from 1950 until his death in 1973. He is best remembered for approving the constitutional changes that removed the monarchy's last nominal political powers. He was also an amateur archaeologist and was interested in the cultures of Ancient Italy.

Since 2012, Swedish businessman Carl-Henric Svanberg has led AB Volvo, the global trucks and construction equipment manufacturer, as its chairman. Previously he worked as the chairman of British oil and gas company BP plc and CEO of the Swedish telecommunication company Ericsson. Still earlier, as CEO, he led the Assa Abloy Group to become a global leader in its industry.

Alva Myrdal was a Swedish politician, diplomat, and sociologist. She played a major role during the disarmament movement in Sweden, for which she was honored with the prestigious Nobel Peace Prize in 1982. She also chaired the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute after playing a key role in its creation. Throughout her career, Myrdal was honored with many prestigious awards.

Swedish scientist and engineer Gustaf de Laval is remembered for his pioneering contribution to the development of high-speed turbines and the de Laval nozzle. He also made milk-cream separators and milking machines. Apart from being a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, he was also named to the Swedish parliament.

Håkan Nesser is a Swedish screenwriter, author, and former school teacher. He is best known for his crime novels about a fictional retired commissioner named Van Veeteren. These novels have been translated into many European languages and have achieved international fame. 

Axel Munthe was a Swedish-born psychiatrist and medical doctor. He is best remembered for writing an autobiographical work titled The Story of San Michele. Munthe often risked his own life to offer medical help during war, plague, and disaster. He also treated the poor without charge. Axel Munthe was also a well-known animal rights activist.

Nobel Prize-winning Swedish author Pär Lagerkvist is remembered for his bestselling novels The Dwarf and Barabbas. He mostly used religious figures to examine the question of good and evil. One of his prose novellas, The Hangman, was later adapted for the stage. He also chaired the Swedish Academy.

In April 2015, Swedish politician Ebba-Elisabeth Busch succeeded Göran Hägglund as the leader of the Christian Democrats party in Sweden. The alumnus of the Uppsala University has represented the Västra Götaland County East in the Swedish parliament (Riksdag) since 2018 and is also a member of Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs and The War Delegation.

Born to a German merchant, Carl Wilhelm Scheele was initially trained as a pharmacist but later switched to chemistry. He began his academic career in Sweden. He is best known for discovering oxygen, apart from countless chemical elements such as barium and chlorine and many organic acids.

One of the prominent names in the formation of the Social Democratic Party of Sweden and also its leader from 1907 to 1925, Karl Hjalmar Branting served thrice as the Prime Minister of Sweden between 1920 and 1925. In 1921, the father of socialism in Sweden was awarded Nobel Peace Prize together with Norwegian diplomat Christian Lous Lange.

Sven Hedin was a Swedish topographer, geographer, photographer, explorer, illustrator, and travel writer. He is best known for making four expeditions to Central Asia. He later shared his experience in a book titled From Pole to Pole. A respected explorer, Hedin was honored with several prestigious awards and medals during his lifetime.

Daughter of an asylum seeker from Zaire, Nyamko Sabuni has politics in her blood, possibly inherited from her left wing politician father.  A member of the Liberal Party, she entered politics when an Ivorian refugee was killed by a Neo Nazi. She served as a minister from 2006 to 2013 and became the first ethnic minority to become a party leader.

Sara Danius was a Swedish professor of literary studies and essayist. She is best remembered for writing about the relationship between society and literature and dealt with authors like Gustave Flaubert, Thomas Mann, and Marcel Proust. Over the course of her illustrious career, Sara Danius was honored with several prestigious awards like Gerard Bonnier's Essay Prize and Lena Nyman Prize.

Rudolf Kjellén was a Swedish politician, geographer, and political scientist. Apart from coining the term geopolitics, Kjellén is also credited with laying the foundations for the German Geopolitik. Rudolf Kjellén also served as a professor of political sciences and statistics at the University of Gothenburg. 

Johan Gadolin was a Finnish physicist, chemist, and mineralogist. He achieved popularity for his description of yttrium, the first rare-earth element. Johan Gadolin is also remembered for his service as a professor at the Royal Academy of Turku, where he became one of the first chemists to give laboratory exercises to students.

Swedish painter Prince Eugen, Duke of Narke was the youngest son of Prince Oscar, Duke of Östergötland. Though he initially didn’t aspire to become a painter, he later became one of the finest landscape painters of his time. He was homosexual, but his orientation was not known to the general public.

Carl Peter Thunberg was a Swedish naturalist best remembered as one of the apostles of Carl Linnaeus. Along with other students of Linnaeus, Thunberg spent seven years in Asia and southern Africa, gathering and describing animals and plants new to European science. Thanks to his extensive research on plants, Thunberg is referred to as the father of South African botany.      

Swedish author and journalist Per-Olov Enquist was raised by a single mother and excelled in high jump in his early years. Known for his documentary approach in his writings, he penned award-winning novels, such as Legionärerna. The Nordic Prize winner died at age 85, after a long battle with cancer.

Apart from being a famous poet in Sweden, Karin Boye also gained international fame with her sci-fi novel Kallocain. She was one of the chief figures of Swedish modern poetry and of the Clarté Socialist movement. After separating from her economist husband, Leif Björk, she had 2 lesbian relationships. She died by suicide.

Magnus Gabriel, Count De la Gardie was a Swedish military man and statesman. He is remembered as the holder of three of the five Great Offices of the Realm, namely the offices of the Lord High Treasurer, Lord High Chancellor, and Lord High Steward of Sweden. He is also regarded as one of the biggest patrons of art and science.

Helge von Koch was a Swedish mathematician who served as a professor at the Royal Institute of Technology and Stockholm University College. He is credited with describing a popular fractal known as the Koch curve, which is named after him. Helge von Koch is also credited with writing many papers on number theory.

Swedish poet Erik Axel Karlfeldt is mostly remembered for his regional poetry that portrayed the peasant life and culture of his homeland. He rejected the Nobel Prize once due to his membership of the Swedish Academy that awards the prize but was awarded the Nobel posthumously.

Eli Filip Heckscher was a Swedish economic historian and economist best remembered for co-developing the Heckscher-Ohlin theorem alongside Bertil Ohlin. Referred to as the father of Swedish economic history, Heckscher also made an immense contribution to the establishment of political opinion in Sweden. In 1932, Eli Filip Heckscher was elected a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Christopher Polhem was a Swedish scientist, industrialist, and inventor. He is credited with making immense contributions to the industrial and economic development of Sweden, especially mining. His contributions to the technological development in Sweden were honored by King Charles XII of Sweden. Christopher Polhem is also credited with writing essays concerning medicine, astronomy, geology, social criticism, and economics.

Swedish poet and author Gustaf Fröding had initially been a journalist. His works showcase the plight of the down-trodden. He spent much of his life in mental hospitals and sanatoriums. A few passages from his poetry collection Splashes and Spray even led to him being prosecuted for pornography.

Gösta Mittag-Leffler was a Swedish mathematician whose contributions are connected mainly with the theory of functions or complex analysis as it is known today. A fierce advocate of women's rights, Gösta Mittag-Leffler played a major role in making Russian mathematician Sofia Kovalevskaya a full professor in Stockholm, the first woman to hold that position.