Professor Thorkild I.A. Sørensen has enjoyed a wide-ranging research career for many years. Now he is coming to Aarhus University as honorary professor of public health.

2016.03.31 | Ida Kellemann Thomsen

The Department of Public Health at AU has appointed professor Thorkild I.A. Sørensen as new honorary professor. He will continue his year-long work on obesity research.

The Department of Public Health and the Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University have appointed Professor Thorkild I.A. Sørensen as honorary professor. Here he will continue his long-standing work on obesity research with a special focus on public health.

Thorkild I.A. Sørensen's research covers many different areas and his broad research field provides usable results:

"The hope is to create a better foundation for both the prevention and treatment of obesity and the many serious conditions that follow from being overweight," says the new honorary professor. Neither does he doubt that the research will come to benefit many people in the long term:

"Experience in this area can be expected to have an impact on public health, both for those people who are obese and also for those who are at risk of becoming obese. This is true of the entire population’s health, and not only in Denmark. The obesity epidemic has become a global health problem," he says.

From foetuses to obesity patients

When Thorkild I.A. Sørensen mentions the many areas that his research covers, the list is long. He studies overweight at all stages of life, from foetuses to patients who are dying from the complications it leads to. At the same time, he looks at how heredity and environmental factors impact on a person becoming overweight, and at the obesity epidemic that is becoming more and more visible around the world.

Thorkild I.A. Sørensen is ordinarily professor of metabolic epidemiology and professor of clinical epidemiology at the University of Copenhagen, and Institute Director at the Institute of Preventative Medicine at Frederiksberg Hospital. He is looking forward to continuing his work in the new position at Aarhus University.

"I have had a very good collaboration for many years with skilled colleagues at Aarhus University. With this honorary position there is now a formal framework for continuing and expanding this research collaboration. At the same time, it is also recognition of Aarhus University's contribution to the value of our collaboration," says Thorkild I.A. Sørensen.

Thorkild I.A. Sørensen took up the position of honorary professor on 1 February.

Further information:

Professor Thorkild I.A. Sørensen

TSOE0005@regionh.dk

Telephone: (+45) 3816 3060

Telephone: (+45) 2348 5071