Barbara Cannon trained in biochemistry at London University, took a PhD in physiology at Stockholm University and, after postdoctoral training in Ottawa, has been professor of physiology in Stockholm since 1983.
She was appointed part-time professor at the Royal Veterinary College in 2009. She has worked on bioenergetics and energy balance in mammals and on signal transduction in brown and white adipose tissues.
She has had numerous positions of trust, including director of the Wenner-Gren Institute, dean of the subfaculty of biology at Stockholm University, vice president of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and chairman of the Trustees of the Nobel Foundation.