Nils Westermark

Like his father, a professor of obstetrics and gynaecology, Nils Westermark earned a bachelor’s degree in medicine in 1914 and the licentiate degree in 1919 from Karolinska Institute Medical School. For several years he worked as a radiologist at various hospitals: the Sabbatsberg’s Hospital (1920-21), the Karolinska Radium Hospital (1922-23) and St Eriks Hospital (1923-29).

From 1929, Westermark was chief physician at Sankt Göran’s Hospital’s X-ray and light department, a position he held until 1957. In 1930, he was awarded his PhD in medicine and subsequently became a lecturer in radiology at the Karolinska Institute. He was appointed professor there in 1955.

Westermark was a member of the board of the Swedish Society of Medical Radiology (1928-57). Moreover, he was a member of the Nordic Society of Medical Radiology and held the first ever Leo G. Rigler lecture in radiology at the University of Minnesota in 1946. In 1938, he discovered the Westermark sign, named after him, describing chest x-ray findings in pulmonary embolism. He published a great number of scientific papers on radiology. Westermark was appointed a Knight of the Order of the Polar Star and received Stockholm’s Sankt Eriks Medal.

In 1922, he married Jane Ingrid Bergliot (née Weidenhielm). Together they had two sons and two daughters. Nils was also longtime chairman of Djurgården’s local historical association. Djurgården is a neighbourhood of Stockholm, where he had lived since 1952.

As a passionate sailor for the Royal Swedish Sailing Society (KSSS), he was a member of the crew of the yacht Sans-Atout in the 8-metre class at the 1912 Olympic Games with his brother Herbert. Thanks to a second place in race one, they made it to the silver medal race, beating the Finnish Lucky Girl by less than one minute. In addition to sailing, his hobbies included fishing and gardening.