Former University of Otago pathology emeritus professor Brett Delahunt has just been appointed to the role at what is one of the world’s foremost medical universities and home to the Nobel Assembly, which selects the Nobel Prize winners in physiology or medicine each year.
Prof Delahunt said he was humbled by the appointment.
"I’m honoured and delighted to be joining the roll of distinguished academics who have served as foreign adjunct professors at the institute."
For more than 40 years, he served on the academic staff of the department of pathology and molecular medicine at Otago University’s Wellington campus.
His most significant achievements include developing a gold standard grading system for classifying kidney cancers and developing and validating a new grading system for diagnosing prostate cancer.
Of the 84 research papers he has published with authors at the Karolinska, 10 are leading studies assessing the potential for artificial intelligence models to diagnose prostate cancer.
Appointments to the institute are made only to academics who meet the requirements needed to be a permanent full professor at the Karolinska and are international leaders in their research field.
Prof Delahunt was the only researcher from New Zealand to be named among the 12 appointments made from around the world.
Prof Delahunt will give his inaugural lecture, on kidney cancer, at the Karolinska Institutet in September.
