Per-Ingvar Brånemark was a professor of anatomy at the institute for applied biotechnology, University of Gothenburg, Sweden and a pioneer in the development of dental implantation. He was born in Karlshamn, Sweden, on 3 May 1929, the son of Per Persson and Anna Margit Ingeborg Persson née Andersson. He later changed his surname from Persson to Brånemark. He studied medicine at Lund University, gaining an MD in 1956 and a PhD in 1959. His early research interest was on microcirculation and bone marrow physiology, and he carried out experiments using titanium optical chambers to observe blood flow and tissue reactions in living bone. It was in such experiments in the 1950s that he observed that titanium became so tightly integrated with living bone that the two could not be separated; a phenomenon he called ‘osseointegration’. This research led the way to the development of titanium implantation. In 1965 he treated Gösta Larsson, the first human patient to receive a fixed titanium dental implant system (four mandibular implants supporting a fixed prosthesis), which remained in place until Larsson’s death in 2006. In 1969 Brånemark was appointed as a professor of anatomy at the University of Gothenburg and in 1989 he founded the Brånemark Osseointegration Centre in Gothenburg as a clinical and research base for advancing his methods. Beyond dentistry, his research found applications in maxillofacial reconstruction, bone anchored hearing aids, craniofacial prostheses and prosthetics for amputees. His son Rickard, a surgeon, has taken his concept of osseointegration forwards, developing orthopaedic prostheses anchored in the skeleton. Brånemark received many awards and honours, including the Harvard School of Dental Medicine Medal, the Söderberg Prize (in 1992), awarded by the Torsten Söderberg Foundation in cooperation with the Swedish Medical Society, the Technical Innovation Medal of the Swedish Engineering Academy (also in 1992), an honorary doctorate from the European University of Madrid (in 2003) and a European Inventor Award (in 2011) for his lifetime achievement in implant technology. In 1991 he was made a fellow of the Faculty of Dental Surgery of the Royal College of Surgeons of England. Brånemark died on 20 December 2014 in Gothenburg at the age of 85. He was survived by his wife Barbro, three children from his first marriage and four grandchildren. In 2021 Global Osseointegration Day was established on Brånemark’s birthday (3 May) to honour his contribution to implant technology.