Rate My Professor Pernilla Åsenlöf

Pernilla Åsenlöf is Professor in Physiotherapy at Uppsala University’s Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, Physiotherapy and Behavioral Medicine section, with a clinical affiliation to Uppsala University Hospital’s Rehabilitation and Pain Centre. Since 2020, she has served as Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Medicine. A licensed physiotherapist qualified in 1988 from Vårdhögskolan Uppsala, she obtained a Magister degree in Caring Sciences in 2000 and a PhD in 2005 from Uppsala University. Her doctoral dissertation, “Individually Tailored Treatment in the Management of Musculoskeletal Pain: Development and Evaluation of a Behavioural Medicine Intervention in Primary Health Care,” laid the foundation for her research career. Åsenlöf advanced through roles including university lecturer (1995–2000), PhD student (2000–2005), researcher (2005–2007), research assistant (2007–2010), Associate Professor (2011–2014), and full Professor since 2015, all at Uppsala University while maintaining clinical practice.

Åsenlöf leads the Physiotherapy and Behavioural Medicine research group as principal investigator since 2007 and serves as scientific leader for the interdisciplinary UPIC initiative on young people’s mental health. Her research focuses on behavioral medicine and physiotherapy, including tailored behavioral treatments, exercise-based interventions, chronic pain rehabilitation, physical activity in sleep apnea, obesity, whiplash-associated disorders, and psychosocial factors in pain management. She has produced 70 original scientific publications (h-index 20, Web of Science), with key contributions such as “Individually Tailored Treatment Targeting Activity, Motor Behavior, and Fear-Avoidance Beliefs in Patients with Persistent Musculoskeletal Pain” (2005, The Journal of Pain), “A further investigation of the importance of pain cognition and behaviour in pain rehabilitation” (2010, Clinical Rehabilitation), and recent works on opioid use and prescription opioid use disorder (2025, European Journal of Pain) and pain in motor neuron disease (2024). Her influence is evident in primary care pain management advancements. Awards include the Thuréus Prize in Medicine (2017, Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala), Young Investigator of the Year (2009, Department of Neuroscience), and Best Abstract/Oral Presentation (2002, Health Care Sciences of Tomorrow). She chairs boards for the Centre for Research and Bioethics and Centre for Disability Research, and is a member of the Swedish Agency for Health Technology Assessment’s Scientific Council.