Walborg Thorsell

Thorsell defended her thesis for her doctorate in veterinary medicine at the Swedish Veterinarian Institute in 1967,[1] and was a docent in experimental parasitology.

[2] Thorsell started her studies on mosquitoes while working at the Swedish National Defence Research Institute (FOA).

At that time claims circulated, from both the United States and the Soviet Union, that the other part was conducting experiments with malaria mosquitos in relations to biological warfare.

The existing repellents were either not efficient enough or had unwanted side effects, so Thorsell and her group of researchers at FOA began looking for a better agent.

After retiring from FOA, Thorsell continued her research on mosquito repellents at the Department of Zoology at Stockholm University.