Professor Emeritus Karl-Erik Eriksson passed away on November 5 after a prolonged illness. The immediate family includes the children Gunnar, Magdalena, and Elin. Karl-Erik was born in Södra Råda parish on November 19, 1935, and it was also in Södra Råda that he spent his final years.
Karl-Erik earned his Ph.D. in theoretical physics at Uppsala University at the age of 25. After a few years at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva and as a lecturer at the National Council for Nuclear Research, he became a professor at the University of Gothenburg in 1963 at the age of 28.
Karl-Erik belonged to the generation that encountered several physicists involved in the advances of modern physics during the first half of the 20th century. He also knew physicists who were involved in the development of nuclear weapons. He himself was among the Swedish scientists working on calculations for various types of Swedish nuclear weapons. However, for most of his life, he actively worked to prevent the spread of knowledge, equipment, and materials that could be used to manufacture nuclear weapons.
As a professor in Gothenburg, he played a leading role in the Centre for Interdisciplinary Studies of Human Conditions, an initiative focused on understanding all aspects of human conditions through knowledge from various scientific disciplines. This initiative led to the establishment of two subjects in Gothenburg: Human Ecology at the University of Gothenburg and Physical Resource Theory at Chalmers University of Technology.
Physical Resource Theory was founded in 1979
He initiated the activities at Chalmers in 1979. In this work, thermodynamics and information theory were used to map and analyse resource flows. Through theoretical analyses, possibilities for efficiency improvements were identified. Technologies such as heat pumps for heating houses and absorption heat pumps exploiting industrial waste heat for cooling houses in summer are results of such analyses.
At Physical Resource Theory, early efforts were made to describe self-organizing systems, life cycle analyses in energy terms, the thermodynamics of material turnover, and future studies on how we could sustainably live with ten billion people on Earth.
Karl-Erik also initiated collaboration with the department of economics at Gothenburg University in the late 1980s. PhD students at Physical Resource Theory took courses in economics and joint research projects on policy instruments, environmental valuation and optimization models started. This collaboration between the two groups has continued until the present day.
Today, Physical Resource Theory is carrying out research in several areas supporting global sustainable development. It has grown into a division with around fifty researchers in fields such as sustainable energy, materials, and agriculture systems, also engaging in extensive consultation with policy makers and society at large. Karl-Erik was an early advocate for creating an open and exploratory academic environment where researchers were inspired to understand and contribute to solutions for the major challenges of our time.
Broad commitment
Karl-Erik's commitment to using science to enable a desirable long-term societal development led him to initiate another subject at Chalmers: Technical Peace Research. Here, research on technical issues could complement the more social science-oriented peace research conducted at the University of Gothenburg or the quantitative analysis at SIPRI and other strategically focused institutions.
His commitment to the world was not only theoretical. Together with his friend, Ghanaian Professor Francis Allotey, Karl-Erik worked on education and development in Ghana since the early 1970s. This ranged from conducting doctoral courses at the Atomic Energy Commission facility in Kwabenya to serving as a development leader in the villages of Edumafa and Owomase. In Edumafa, a school bearing his name was established.
In Sweden, he also engaged as an advisor to organizations and in local initiatives. During a visit to Sweden's first eco-municipality, Övertorneå, the municipal council asked why a professor of theoretical physics was there. Karl-Erik responded in his way: 'Even we must have the opportunity to learn things.'
Humble and committed
Karl-Erik had great confidence in the scientific method. He had deep knowledge in many areas but always showed humility as a person and commitment to issues such as human rights and justice. He often expressed strong resistance to corruption and abuse of power.
For much of his life, Karl-Erik devoted himself to one of the most challenging problems in physics: the measurement problem in quantum mechanics. After retirement, he continued his research in this area until the end, despite the progression of illness. His proposal for solving the problem is to describe the entire measurement process, with its object and measurement apparatus, in quantum field theory, a cornerstone of modern physics.
Tomas Kåberger, professor in Industrial Energy Policy
Christian Azar, professor in Physical Resource Theory
John Holmberg, professor in Physical Resource Theory
Sten Karlsson, docent emeritus in Industrial Ecology
Kristian Lindgren, professor emeritus in Complex Systems
Bengt Månsson, professor in Environmental Science