After Sweden won Scania from Denmark in the 1658 Treaty of Roskilde, the university was officially founded in 1666 on the location of the old studium generale next to Lund Cathedral.

Lund University has nine faculties,[6] with additional campuses in the cities of Malmö and Helsingborg, with around 47,000 students[3] in 241 different programmes and 1,450 freestanding courses.

[8] The university centres on the Lundagård park adjacent to the Lund Cathedral, with various departments spread in different locations in town, but mostly concentrated in a belt stretching north from the park connecting to the university hospital area and continuing out to the northeastern periphery of the town, where one finds the large campus of the Faculty of Engineering.

After Sweden won Scania from Denmark in the 1658 Treaty of Roskilde, the university was founded in 1666 on the location of the old studium generale next to Lund Cathedral.

Some notable professors in the early days were Samuel Pufendorf, a juridical historian; and Canutus Hahn and Kristian Papke in philosophy.

This was largely owing to popular and well-educated lecturers particularly in philology; the prominent professor Esaias Tegnér was a particularly notable character with widespread authority.

In the early 20th century, the university had a student population as small as one thousand, consisting largely of upper-class pupils training to become civil servants, lawyers and doctors.

In 1992 Boel Flodgren, Professor of Business Law, was appointed rector magnificus (or, strictly speaking, rectrix magnifica) of Lund University.

[33] The university is active in many internationally important research areas, such as neurology, nanotechnology, climate change and stem cell biology.

One of the most famous innovations based on research from Lund University is diagnostic ultrasound, which is today a routine method of examination in hospitals around the world.

Other examples of pioneering innovations are the artificial kidney, which laid the foundations for the multinational company Gambro and which makes life easier for dialysis patients worldwide, and Bluetooth technology, which enables wireless communication over short distances.

The nations in Lund are a central part of the university's history, initially serving as residential colleges for students, organized by geographic origin.

The student union association runs services such as a loan institute, a day-care center and a website with housing information.

Samuel Pufendorf (1632–1694) was a notable jurist and philosopher known for his natural law theories, influencing Adam Smith[59] as well as Thomas Jefferson.

[62] Bertil Ohlin (1899–1979) received the Nobel Prize in economic sciences in 1977 for theories concerning international trade and capital, and was the leader of the Liberal's Peoples Party (Folkpartiet) for 23 years.

[70] Elias Magnus Fries (1794–1878) was a notable botanist who played a prominent role in the creation of the modern taxonomy of mushrooms.

Sune Bergström (1916–2004) and Bengt Samuelsson (1934–) were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1982 for "discoveries concerning prostaglandins and related biologically active substances".

Arvid Carlsson (1923–2018) was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2000 for "discoveries concerning signal transduction in the nervous system" and is noted for having discovered the role of dopamine as an independent neurotransmitter.

[72] Per Georg Scheutz (1785–1873) was a Swedish lawyer, publicist and inventor who created the first working programmable difference engine with a printing unit.

Martin Wiberg (1826–1905) was a prolific inventor who, among many things, created the first difference engine the size of the sewing machine that could calculate and print logarithmic tables.

Manne Siegbahn (1886–1978), a student of Rydberg, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics 1924 for his discoveries and research in the field of X-ray spectroscopy.

Oskar Klein (1894–1977) was an internationally renowned theoretical physicist famous for the Klein-Kaluza theory, the Klein-Gordon equation, and the Klein-Nishina formula.

Rutger Macklean (1742–1816) was a prominent captain, politician and land owner remembered for introducing agricultural reforms leading to more effective large-scale farming in Sweden.

Tage Erlander (1901–1985) was Sweden's prime minister 1945–1969, potentially a record of uninterrupted tenure in parliamentary democracies, and led his party through eleven elections.

Esaias Tegnér (1782–1846) was an influential writer, poet, bishop and professor of the Greek language, perhaps most famous for his work Frithiofs Saga.

Viktor Rydberg (1828–1895) was a notable journalist, writer and researcher, most famous for his works Tomten and Singoalla and regarded as one of Sweden's most important authors of the 19th century.

[78] Frans G Bengtsson (1894–1954) was a Swedish writer and poet famous for his novels The Long Ships (Röde Orm) which have been translated to at least 23 languages.

Fritiof Nilsson Piraten (1895–1972) was a Swedish lawyer and popular author, known for his works Bombi Bitt och Jag and Bock i Örtagård.

Hans Alfredsson (1931–2017) was a Swedish comedian, author and actor, sometimes regarded as the foremost representative of the so-called Lundahumorn (the humor from Lund).

Charlotta Falvin (1966–) is a Swedish businesswoman who is the chairman of the companies Teknopol, Barista, Multi-Q and Ideon AB and the previous CEO of TAT and Decuma.