Faculty of Medicine nominates Toomas Asser as rector’s candidate

At an extraordinary meeting on 1 March, the council of the Faculty of Medicine decided to submit professor Toomas Asser as a candidate to the post of the rector of the University of Tartu.

All members the council of the Faculty of Medicine who attended the meeting voted for nomination of professor Toomas Asser as the rector’s candidate.

Head of the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at the University of Tartu’s Institute of Clinical Medicine Toomas Asser says he wants to guarantee a stable and balanced development of the university, “The university’s educational and research activities have had an important role in the development of the society of Estonia so far. I believe that we do not need to make abrupt changes in the activities initiated in recent years.”

“I am the former dean of the Faculty of Medicine, and currently a member of the council of the University of Tartu and head of the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery. I believe I can use my long-term management experience to develop the university,” said Asser.

According to the dean of the Faculty of Medicine Margus Lember, Toomas Asser would be a worthy leader of the University of Tartu. “Toomas Asser’s competence in research, education and health policies and his ability to lead the development of these fields are remarkable. He also knows the University of Tartu very well and knows the development needs of the university as a whole,” said Lember.

Toomas Asser was born on 14 July 1954 in Jõhvi. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine with distinction in 1979 and defended his dissertation and received the candidate of medical sciences degree at the Moscow N. Burdenko Institute of Neurosurgery in 1986. In 1995, Toomas Asser was elected a professor of the University of Tartu. His main areas of research are vascular neurosurgery, neuro-oncology and Parkinson’s disease. Toomas Asser has published more than 150 publications, incl. 60 articles in internationally recognised journals. He has supervised nine doctoral dissertations.

Since 1995, Professor Asser has worked as head of the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery of the University of Tartu and since 1996 also as head of the Neurology Clinic in Tartu University Hospital. From 2000−2009 he was dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Tartu. In 2011, professor Asser was elected a member of the Estonian Academy of Sciences and he is a member of its Standing Committee on Medical Science and Health Strategy. Since 2012, he has been a member of the council of the University of Tartu. Toomas Asser is also active internationally; from 2011−2015 he was vice president of the European Association of Neurosurgical Societies. In 2013, the president of Estonia awarded him the Order of the Estonian Red Cross, 1st class.

The rector will be elected by the electoral council at the election meeting on 26 April 2018.

Additional information:
Margus Lember
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Tartu
5331 8600, 731 8600
margus.lember@ut.ee