Bengt Robertson

Bengt A. Robertson was a Swedish physician and perinatal pathologist. Robertson was primarily known for the development of the synthetic lung surfactant known as Corusurf that brought relief to very small babies suffering from infant respiratory distress syndrome (RDS). From 1974 to 2000 he was the director of the division for experimental perinatal pathology in the department of women and child Health at the Karolinska Institute.

In 1996 he was awarded the King Faisal International Prize in Medicine together with Tetsurō Fujiwara for contributions to the understanding of neonatal medicine.

Life
Robertson was born and grew up in Stockholm. As a child he attended the Södra Latins Gymnasium in the Södermalm area of Stockholm, leaving in 1953. Having decided to become a physician, Robertson attended the Karolinska Institute, a medical university and graduated Master of Science in Medicine (Swedish: Läkarexamen) in 1960. Robertson followed the MD with a Doctor of Philosophy degree and was awarded a doctorate in 1968. His thesis was titled: "The intrapulmonary arterial pattern in normal infancy and in transposition of the great arteries".

Career
From 1974 to 2000 he was director of the Division of Experimental Perinatal Pathology at the Karolinska Institute.

Surfactant research
When Robertson was a visiting professor of the department of pathology at Toronto University, he met obstetrician Göran Enhörning who was based at the Toronto Western Hospital. Enhörning from Stockholm like Robertson, would become his principal collaborator.

In January 1964, the first preliminary trial on the use of synthetic surfactant beta-gamma-dipalmitoyl-L-alpha-lecithin (DPL) on infants with RDS took place. that was delivered by nebulizer to 11 infants with RDS.

Two trials were conducted in that used nebulised synthetic surfactant that was composed of synthetic dipalmitoylphosphatidylcholine (DPPC), showed negative results in the treatment of RDS.

In 1972, Bengt and Enhörning developed research to discover the reasons for the failure of nebulised synthetic surfactant. They described that when natural surfactant was installed directly into the trachea of premature rabbits, normal lung expansion was achieved, and the animals survived.

In the autumn of 1984, Bengt became the leader of a group of neonatologist and surfactant researchers, known as "The Collaborative European Multicenter Study Group", who were formed to test Curosurf in the first large international multicentre clinical trial.

Honours
Robertson received many honours throughout his life. In 1996, he was first recognised when he was awarded the King Faisal International Prize. Two years later in 1998, Robertson along with Tore Curstedt was awarded the Hilda and Alfred Eriksson Prize by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. In 2002, he was awarded the Erich Saling Maternité Prize given by the European Association of Perinatal Medicine. This was followed in 2004 with the awarding of the Lars Werkö Prize by the Swedish Heart Lung Foundation along with Tore Curstedt. In 2023, Robertson was awarded the singular honour of having an award named after himself, when the European Academy of Paediatric Societies created the Bengt Robertson Award for research into the neonatal lung.