Physician, Neuroscientist, and Entrepreneur who has spent her career at the boundary between science and meaning.
Science, and meaning *
Science, and meaning *
Dr. Mouna Esmaeilzadeh (born 1980, Teheran) is a physician, neuroscientist, entrepreneur, investor, and Swedish TV-profile.
She made international headlines as one of Sweden's most prominent science communicators, reaching millions through her television series Popular Science with Dr. Mouna on TV4 (2017–2025), her hosting of Sweden's most prestigious radio program Sommar i P1 (2018), and her role as Nobel Prize science commentator on Swedish public service television, SVT. The previous secretary of the Nobel Committee, Alf Lindberg, called her one of the leading authorities on "the future of health."
Mouna was born in Iran during the revolution. Her parents were political opponents. At the age of three, Mouna's heart stopped from hypothermia while the family fled through the Kurdish mountains. Illiterate village women revived, with knowledge passed down through generations, older than any medical textbook. The family arrived in Sweden as refugees with nothing.
Before medicine, she studied music and natural sciences. Parallel to her medical studies she completed a master's degree in philosophy at the University of Oslo. She trained as a physician at Karolinska Institute, where she also earned her PhD in neuroscience — specializing in PET imaging and the dopamine system, with a doctoral thesis on novel treatments for Huntington's disease. During her doctorate, she founded the first Philosophical Club at Karolinska, bridging the gap between science and the deeper questions of human existence, a thread that runs through everything she has done since.
Being a pioneer in Longevity, she founded SciLife Clinic already in 2009, one of the world's first medical practices dedicated to extending preventive health and healthy lifespans through some of the latest science and technology at the time, such as genetic mapping, imaging techniques, advanced biomarkers and thereby inventing preventive protocols. Frankfurter Allgemeine described her as the first physician in the world to integrate genetic analyses into routine health examinations. Her patients included business leaders, world-famous artists, elite athletes, and royalty. She sold the clinic in 2016 to focus on broader questions about the future of medicine, trying to popularize science in a fun, accessible manner as a Swedish TV-profile.
In 2020, she co-founded EHAB — Esmaeilzadeh Holding — with her brother Saeid Esmaeilzadeh, Sweden's youngest professor in history and a well-known business person in Sweden. The family-owned investment firm now manages a portfolio generating billions of SEK in revenue across industries, and owns over a hundred companies. Mouna serves as executive vice chairman of the board.
She has delivered over one 100 keynotes, across fifteen countries, and was awarded Sweden's Grand Speaker Award (Stora Talarpriset) in 2023. She has shared a stage with Barack Obama at Brilliant Minds, joined King Carl XVI Gustaf on the Royal Technology Mission to China, and been granted a private audience with Pope Francis — who called her story a divine miracle. Her face was printed on the Swedish Women's National Football Team's World Cup jersey alongside Crown Princess Victoria. She competed on Let's Dance, Sweden's version of Dancing with the Stars. She has been named Fact-Based Optimist of the Year by Warp Institute and Google, received the MENSA Award, the Powergirl Award from UN Women Sweden, and was ranked number five on Veckans Affärer's list of Sweden's 101 Supertalents and among the 100 Most Powerful in MedTech.
Today, Mouna serves as an advisor to the European Commission on artificial intelligence and is a leading voice in the emerging field of neurorights — the legal framework to protect mental privacy and cognitive liberty from neural surveillance. Her forthcoming book, Reborn, weaves together her survival story, frontier science, and a fierce argument for the first generation with the power to choose what humanity becomes.
She divides her time between writing, speaking, investing, and the question she keeps returning to: how do we remain deeply human while becoming more technologically advanced?
Thought Leader
For the last decade, Dr. Mouna has actively been pushing for a paradigm shift within healthcare, promoting digitalization and the use of modern technology such as artificial intelligence and genetics for patient care and to prevent diseases and increase healthy years of life.
After selling SciLife 2016, she has been focusing on spreading knowledge and science, being the TV expert during the Nobel Prize and sharing her wisdom in her own program "Popular science with Dr. Mouna" where she makes science understandable in the most popular Swedish morning TV.
Mouna believes that science is beautiful, fun, sexy and in fact appreciated by everyone if presented in the right way. With great enthusiasm for science and the art of presenting complex things in a simple way, Dr. Mouna is a well known face from Swedish national TV4 Nyhetsmorgon, where she covers topics within her field of expertise such as longevity, the brain, artificial intelligence, future of healthcare, genetics and epigenetics, as well as other hot scientific topics.
“Rather than staying in the ivory tower of academia, Mouna steps out among the people and explains in an accessible way how to improve your health.”
— MedTech Magazine
SELECTION OF AWARDS & MILESTONES
2023GRAND SPEAKER AWARD
(STORA TALARPRISET)
Mouna Esmaeilzadeh won Sweden's Grand Speaker Award 2023, the country's highest recognition for public speaking. The jury praised her rare ability to make complex science accessible and inspiring, her genuine credibility across medicine, philosophy, and neuroscience, and her commitment to human rights rooted in her own story. The award is selected from a shortlist of Sweden's 20 top speakers.
AUDIENCE WITH
POPE FRANCIS
2023In 2023, Pope Francis invited Dr. Mouna Esmaeilzadeh to a private audience at the Vatican. He had heard her story and wanted to meet the girl who survived.
"This is a divine miracle." — Pope Francis, upon hearing Mouna's story of the snow
In a private audience at the Vatican, Pope Francis listened to the story of Mouna's clinical death and revival. He then said something she did not expect: "Please, pray for me."
During the Easter-season meeting, Mouna used the moment to advocate for the "Women, Life, Freedom" movement, carrying the voices of Iranian women still fighting the regime her family fled. The Pope surprised her by asking, repeatedly, that she pray for him — a moment she describes as proof that what makes us human is the capacity to witness one another.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC
2021Featured as one of the world's leading voices on longevity and the future of medicine.
EU AI COMMITTEE
2021Appointed to the European Union's first advisory committee on artificial intelligence, Dr. Mouna brings a rare combination to the governance table: a neuroscientist who understands how the brain works, an entrepreneur who understands how technology scales, and a refugee who understands what happens when power goes unchecked.
MENSA AWARD
2019The Mensa Award is presented annually by Mensa Sweden to recognize an idea, achievement, or action that has promoted human intelligence. This year’s award goes to Dr. Mouna Esmaeilzadeh, a physician and brain researcher. She is also a well-known television personality, appearing on programs such as Nyhetsmorgon, and was one of the most highly acclaimed hosts of Sweden’s Sommar i P1 radio program in 2018.
The jury’s citation for this year’s Mensa Award reads:
“With her incurable optimism, clear educational approach, and infectious joy for life, Mouna Esmaeilzadeh succeeds in convincing us that the future is brighter than we think. She is also a role model for anyone who wants to fully enjoy using their brain; Mouna simply seems to have fun when she thinks. She speaks about the miracles of the future, and it is we humans who, through our own intelligence, are able to create the innovations that make those miracles possible.”.
Host at the Brilliant Minds conference in Stockholm, where she shared the stage with President Barack Obama.
"Mouna Esmaeilzadeh is on a mission to make science compete with pop culture for attention — and she's winning. Part doctor, part philosopher, part entrepreneur, she brings real credibility and raw honesty to every stage she steps on. Her message is clear: knowledge should be for everyone, not just the few."
— ELLETHE ROYAL TECHNOLOGY
MISSION
2018Selected by the Swedish government to join King Carl XVI Gustaf's Royal Technology Mission to China in 2018. Dr. Mouna represented Sweden's cutting edge in precision medicine, AI in healthcare, and longevity science at the highest diplomatic level.
SUPER TALENT AWARD
2018Physician, neuroscientist, and entrepreneur Dr. Mouna Esmaeilzadeh — known to millions of Swedes as "Doktor Mouna" — was ranked number five on Veckans Affärer's annual list of Sweden's 101 Supertalents in 2018. With a medical degree and a PhD in neuroscience from Karolinska Institute, she built her public profile as a recurring science expert on TV4's Nyhetsmorgon, where she made genetics, longevity, and AI accessible to a national audience. Beyond the screen, she is co-founder and vice chairman of EHAB — Esmaeilzadeh Holding — a family-owned investment firm with over one hundred companies in its portfolio, spanning genomics, AI-driven drug design, and precision medicine.
BRILLIANT MINDS
2019