Professor at Aarhus University Torsten Lauritzen has just been honoured with the Marie and August Krogh Award. The award is one of the most distinguished medical awards in Denmark and is awarded by the Novo Nordisk Foundation and the Organization of Danish Medical Societies.

2014.02.04 | Helle Horskjær Hansen

The board of the Organization of Danish Medical Societies act as the committee, while the sum will be donated by the Novo Nordisk Foundation, when Torsten Lauritzen receives the award on 24 January 2014.

Torsten Lauritzen became a medical doctor in 1977 and since then he has focused on research into diabetes. And now he is being rewarded for his long-standing contribution to the research. The Marie and August Krogh Award totals DKK 250,000. Of this, DKK 100,000 is a personal award, while DKK 150,000 is for research.

In 1983 Torsten Lauritzen choose to become a general practitioner. And it was here that he introduced the first clinical guidelines for Danish general practitioners on the treatment of diabetes. Later he also participated in the development of international guidelines for the treatment of diabetes. 

“The award will further our research into the impact of health examinations and health dialogues, as well as screening and optimum treatment of people with type 2-diabetes,” explains the researcher.

Acclaimed by colleagues

Torsten Lauritzen has also shown how injections of insulin and insulin pump treatment can improve blood glucose. 

As one of the principal organisers of a major international research project, Torsten Lauritzen became chairman for a steering committee that studied the effect of screening for type 2-diabetes and subsequent intensive treatment with lifestyle changes and preventative medicine.

The purpose of the study was to avoid the complications that diabetes can give. Diseases such as thrombosis, strokes, kidney disease and eye disease.

This is by no means the first time that Torsten Lauritzen is being honoured for his research. Though this award has a very special significance.

“I am extremely honoured and delighted to receive this award. To be recognised in this way by one’s colleagues in the Organization of Danish Medical Societies gives extra energy and motivation to continue with the research tasks,” explains Torsten Lauritzen on the award, which will be awarded at the Organization of Danish Medical Societies’ annual meeting on Friday 24 January 2014.

About Marie and August Krogh

Marie Krogh (1874-1943) became the fourth Danish woman to earn a doctorate in medicine in 1914. She worked as a general practitioner for a number of years, while at the same time carrying out several independent research projects in her husband’s laboratory.

August Krogh (1874-1949) was Professor of Zoophysiology at the University of Copenhagen. He is remembered as one of Denmark’s most eminent scientists of the 20th century. In 1920 he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, and as a result of the distinction he was engaged in a series of lectures in the USA in 1922 when he - via Marie, who was accompanying him and who also suffered from diabetes - was made aware of diabetes research in Canada. After a visit to Canada he returned home with the rights to produce insulin in Scandinavia, which was the beginning of the establishment of what is today known as the Novo Nordisk Foundation and of Novo Nordisk A/S, one of the world’s leading companies for the treatment of diabetes.

Further information

Professor Torsten Lauritzen
Aarhus University, Department of Public Health
Direct tel.: +45 8716 7931
Mobile: +45 2043 6931
tl@alm.au.dk