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Here are the first 21 Honorary Skou Professors

They have been discussed a lot over the last few years. The fifty recognised researchers from foreign top universities who will be affiliated with Health and hold the title of Honorary Skou Professor. Now we can reveal the initial 21 names.

2018.11.29 | Simon Byrial Fischel

The first round of recommendations is now complete, and Health has succeeded in affiliating 21 recognised professors from universities in eleven different countries. Photo: Simon Byrial Fischel

Internationalisation is high on the strategic agenda. And one of the key initiatives in this strategy is the affiliation of fifty elite researchers from leading international universities as new honorary professors. Since the spring, the departments have therefore had the opportunity to recommend their most talented foreign colleagues for the honorary title of Honorary Skou Professor – and the level of interest in the initiative has been high.

The new Honorary Skou Professors will not only receive an honorary title but must also actively participate in the individual department’s academic work. This can e.g. be as guest lecturers and co-supervisors on PhD projects, in the form of research partnerships and joint funding applications or as guest lecturers at symposiums and conferences.

In order to help the Skou professors get to know their respective departments in the best way, each of them has a ‘champion’ affiliated, who is their academic contact person at the department and is charged with helping to smooth the start of the collaboration and ensure that the Skou professors are integrated in the academic environments.

21 honorary titles handed out

The first round of recommendations is now complete, and Health has succeeded in affiliating 21 recognised professors from universities in eleven different countries. However, the first round has not succeeded in ensuring the desired equal gender distribution among the Skou professors, with fifteen of the positions going to men and just six to women.

During the run up to the next deadline for recommending Skou professors, which is on 4 March 2019, there will therefore be particular focus on balancing the gender distribution, so that the faculty can achieve its stated goal of having half of the professorships filled by women.

Grand inauguration party on Skou's birthday

Once the final 29 honorary professors are in place, all fifty Honorary Skou Professors and their fifty champions will meet in Aarhus for the official inauguration. This will take place on the day that Jens Christian Skou would have celebrated 101 years – 8 October 2019. The planning of the inauguration event is already in full swing and there will be a grand celebration of the many new collaborations.

 

Here are the first Honorary Skou Professors and their champions:

Department of Clinical Medicine

Professor Thomas WL Scheeren, University of Groningen, Department of Anaesthesiology
Champion: Simon Vistisen

Professor Andrew A Nierenberg, Harvard University
Champion: Søren Dinesen Østergaard

Professor Merel Ritskes-Hoitinga, Radboud University, Department for Health Evidence
Champion: Gregers Wegener

Professor Harry G Kennedy, Trinity College Dublin, Department of Psychiatry
Champion: Per Hove Thomsen

Department of Forensic Medicine

Professor Gary Rudnick, Yale University, Department of Pharmacology
Champion: Steffen Sinding

Professor Michael Thali, University of Zürich, Department of Forensics
Champion: Lene Boel

Department of Biomedicine

Professor Chikashi Toyoshima, University of Tokyo, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biosciences
Champion: Bente Vilsen

Professor Rosalind A Coleman, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Department of Nutrition
Champion: Janne Lebeck

Professor Robin R Ali, University College London, Institute of Ophthalmology
Champion: Thomas Corydon

Professor Peter FM Carmeliet, KU Leuven, Department of Oncology
Champion: Yonglun Luo

Professor Luke AJ O’Neill, Trinity College Dublin, School of Biochemistry and Immunology
Champion: Christian Holm

Professor Maria F Gomez, Lund University, Department of Clinical Sciences
Champion: Ebbe Bødtkjer

Professor Joseph D Buxbaum, Icahn Scool of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital
Champion: Anders Børglum

Professor David A Boas, Boston University, Department of Biomedical Engineering
Champion: Vladimir Matchkov

Professor Cecilia Lundberg, Lund University, Professor of Neurobiology
Champion: Thomas Corydon

Professor Jean-Laurent Casanova, Rockefeller University, St. Giles Laboratory of Human Genetics of Infectious Diseases
Champion: Trine Mogensen

Department of Public Health

Professor Onyebuchi A. Arah, University of California Los Angeles, Department of Epidemiology
Champion: Cecilia Høst Ramlau-Hansen

Professor Ragnhild Hellesø, University of Oslo, Department of Nursing Science
Champion: Kirsten Frederiksen

CESU

Director of Education Research and Scholarship, Professor Kevin W Eva, University of British Columbia, Department of Medicine
Champion: Charlotte Ringsted

Department of Dentistry and Oral health

Professor Luda B Diatchenko, McGill University, Faculty of Dentistry
Champion: Lene Baad-Hansen

Professor Mehmet Ali Darendeliler, University of Sydney, Department of Orthodontics
Champion: Paolo Cattaneo

 

Watch Dean Lars Bo Nielsen talk about the 50 Honorary Skou professors.

Contact

Vice-dean for Talent Development, Lise Wogensen Bach
Vennelyst Boulevard 4, Building 1265, 214
8000 Aarhus C.
Email: lwb@au.dk
Mobil: (+45) 2548 8522

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