Gunnar Kahlmeter has worked in clinical microbiology since 1971 and specifically in the field of antimicrobial resistance since 1972. He has more than 35 years of experience in leading people in practical microbiology and in science.

Gunnar has spent 15 years in clinical microbiology and research at Lund University, Sweden. Since 1984 he has been an associate professor in the medical faculties of Lund and Uppsala. Between 1985 – 2016, he led three clinical microbiology laboratories and for 20 years he has been the head of the Swedish national reference laboratory on phenotypic susceptibility testing of bacteria.

In 2001, he was asked to develop EUCAST (the European Committee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing) and has served as its chairperson. He has also served as the EUCAST Technical Data Coordinator and webmaster. He has led the EUCAST Development Laboratory for 10 years. Gunnar was the president of ESCMID between 2012 and 2014 and has served on many committees involved in antimicrobial resistance. He has published in excess of 200 scientific publications.

After receiving his medical degree from Lund University, Sweden, in 1979, he also defended a doctoral thesis on pharmacokinetics and toxicity of aminoglycosides in the same year.