University of Athens Pays Tribute to John Sevastik

A commemorative event in honour of the late Emeritus Professor John Sevastik (Sevastikoglou, 1921–2012), former Director of Orthopaedic Surgery at the Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, took place on Tuesday, 12 May 2026. The event was organised by the Departments of Orthopaedics and the ‘Th. Garofalidis’ Research Laboratory of Musculoskeletal Diseases at the School of Medicine of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

The ceremony was held in the University’s Great Hall.

Opening remarks were delivered by Professor Gerasimos Siasos, Rector of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.

Speakers included Professor Pagona Lagiou, Dean of the School of Health Sciences,

and Professor Nikolaos Arkadopoulos, Chair of the Medical School.

Professor Efstathios Chronopoulos, of the Medical School, reflected on the life and work of the late Professor Sevastik.

A tribute was also presented by the Rector to Dr Per Sevastik, one of the honouree’s sons.

The ceremony concluded with a recorded message from Professor Li Felländer Tsai, representing the Karolinska Institute.

In his remarks, Rector Gerasimos Siasos noted, among other things: ‘…we honour a man whose remarkable international career never distanced him from his Greek roots, nor from the intellectual values and humanistic tradition that shaped him during his years at the University of Athens. At the same time, we honour an entire generation marked by displacement, war and post-war reconstruction – a generation that transformed hardship into creativity, perseverance into achievement, and knowledge into service of the wider world…His academic career was exemplary. In 1959, he was elected Associate Professor at the Karolinska Institute and subsequently served at Uppsala University Hospital. In 1967, he was appointed Chair of Orthopaedic Surgery at Umeå University, before returning to the Karolinska Institute in 1973 as Professor of Orthopaedics and Director of the Department of Orthopaedics at Huddinge University Hospital…The international academic community formally recognised his contribution in 2008 with the establishment of the “John Sevastik Award”, presented every two years to leading researchers in spinal deformities. His broader academic and scientific achievements were acknowledged through numerous distinctions and honours: he served as a member of the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute, was appointed Knight of the Royal Order of the Polar Star of Sweden, and in 1978 was elected a Corresponding Member of the Academy of Athens. Behind the distinguished academic and internationally celebrated scientist, however, there was always the human being: a man deeply devoted to his family, profoundly attached to Greece, and with a lasting sense of gratitude for life itself. The presence of one of his three sons, Dr Per Sevastik, lends particular meaning and warmth to this occasion, and we are especially honoured to welcome him.’