Bjorn Gerdle was born in 1953, in Kalmar, Sweden. He received a Ph.D. degree in rehabilitation medicine in 1985 from Umea University, Umea, Sweden., He is a physician and specialist in rehabilitation medicine since 1991 and in pain alleviation since 1997. Since 1992 he has been a Professor of rehabilitation medicine at Linköping University, Sweden, and since 1997, also as the Director of the Pain and Rehabilitation Centre, at University Hospital, Linkoping. He has written approximately 125 papers in peer-reviewed international journals mainly within the fields of muscle fatigue, electromyography, clinical pain, and rehabilitation. The specific research fields include muscle tension and surface electromyography (EMG), muscle pain (work-related muscle pain, whiplash-associated disorders, and fibromyalgia), muscle histochemistry and morphology in patients with chronic pain, and the effects of multimodal rehabilitation programs, Professor Girdle is a member in the Swedish Society of Medicine and the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP).