Associate Professor and Medical Doctor Morten Schmidt from Aarhus University is an expert in utilising electronic health records in research which, among other things, benefits heart patients. On top of this, he is an extraordinary research talent who will be honoured with the Jens Christian Skou Award on 8 October 2021.

2021.09.09 | Sabina Bjerre Hansen

Morten Schmidt from the Department of Clinical Medicine and the Department of Clinical Epidemiology receives the Skou Award 2021. Photo: Simon Byrial Fischel, AU Health.

Morten Schmidt is this year's recipient of the Faculty of Health’s talent award, the Skou Award. He is talented, ambitious and hard-working, and with a CV that includes more than 135 scientific articles, over 10,000 citations and an H-index of 40, Morten Schmidt stands out as an extraordinarily talented younger researcher.

The 38-year-old medical doctor and researcher‘s daily place of work is the Department of Cardiology at Aarhus University Hospital and the Department of Clinical Epidemiology at Aarhus University. Here, he conducts research into cardiovascular diseases and has, among other things, studied the cardiovascular side effects of painkillers. Morten Schmidt’s research has e.g. contributed to some types of medicine no longer being available for over the counter purchase, because he and his research colleagues have shown that the risk profiles of these medicines were too high.

The Skou Award will be formally presented at an event at Aarhus University on 8 October 2021. The award comes with DKK 100,000 earmarked for research.

Contact

Associate professor, MD & PhD Morten Schmidt
Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine and
Aarhus University Hospital, Department of Clinical Epidemiology
Email: morten.schmidt@clin.au.dk
Mobile: (+45) 41 28 99 55

About Morten Schmidt

• Graduated as a medical doctor from Aarhus University in 2012 and completed his PhD at the university in 2014.
• Spent six months as a postdoc at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and has also had research stays at Boston University, Dartmouth University, Ohio State University and California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute.
• Considers using the DKK 100,000 which follows with the Skou Award on another research stay abroad.
• Has published 135 scientific articles, is cited more than 10,000 times and has an H-index of 40.
• Received a grant of DKK 7.5 million in 2020 under the Novo Nordisk Foundation's research leader’s programme.
• Born in 1983 and raised in Ringkøbing in Western Jutland.
• Lives in Aarhus together with his wife Sigrún Jóhannesdóttir Schmidt, who is a medical doctor at the Department of Dermatology. They have two children, two-year-old Alfred and one-year-old Alma. 

About the Jens Christian Skou Award

The Skou award is given annually to a researcher in the field of health science who is extraordinarily talented within his or her field of research, and who is both creative and productive.

The award is named after Jens Christian Skou, who received the Nobel Prize in 1997 and is still a source of inspiration for junior researchers. Every year, Health awards the prize around the time of Jens Christian Skou’s birthday on 8 October.

The following researchers at Health have received the Skou award:

• 2020: Nicolai Juul Birkbak: Evolution nerd receives talent award named after Nobel Prize winner

• 2019: Ebbe Bødtkjer: Talented biomedical researcher receives distinguished award

• 2018: Maiken Stilling: Clinician with unique research talent receives the Skou award 2018

• 2017: Simon Glerup: Extraordinary research talent receives the Jens Chr. Skou award

• 2016: Trine Hyrup Mogensen: Exceptionally talented researcher receives the Jens Chr. Skou award

Read more about the Jens Chr. Skou Award in the article "New award at Health to honour research talents".