Thirty-nine newly appointed Skou professors from all over the world were warmly welcomed by Dean Lars Bo Nielsen and Rector Brian Bech Nielsen in the Merete Barker lecture theatre. “You can’t imagine how happy we are”, said the rector.

2019.10.10 | Henriette Stevnhøj

Forty-seven top researchers from thirty-four different universities were appointed Skou professors at Health on Jens Christian Skou's 101st birthday. Thirty-nine of them participated in the inauguration at Aarhus University. Dean Lars Bo Nielsen and Rector Brian Bech Nielsen can be seen at the front of the photo. Hanne Skou, daughter of Jens Christian Skou, who passed away in 2018, also participated in the ceremony.

The Honorary Skou professor initiative reached its initial culmination on 8 October with the inauguration of forty-seven honorary professors at Health. No less than thirty-nine of them had made the trip to Aarhus, where they were officially inaugurated as the faculty’s first Honorary Skou professors at an informal and festive ceremony.

Rector Brian Bech Nielsen gave the international top researchers a cheerful history of Aarhus University, from the first yellow bricks being laid on an empty field with grazing sheep on the outskirts of the city in 1928 up until the university’s new strategy for the future.

He emphasised that connections to universities and researchers abroad is an important strategical element.

“We need relations to be able to create knowledge. That’s why we’re so happy that you’ve accepted our invitation. And we look forward to welcoming you again and again, and we hope you will return to Aarhus,” said Brian Bech Nielsen. 

In his speech to the professors, Lars Bo Nielsen emphasised the late Jens Christian Skou’s importance. Not only due to his groundbreaking discovery of the sodium-potassium pump, for which he received the Nobel prize. But also for his conviction that the best way to achieve significant results was through a joint effort. 

“Skou was very committed to his international relations and never hid the fact that his success was contingent on the contribution made by others to his research. And throughout his life he repeatedly stressed the importance of sharing ideas and drawing inspiration from one another. I’m certain that he would have been thrilled if he’d been here with us in a lecture theatre full of seriously sharp top researchers,” said Lars Bo Nielsen.

Read about the idea behind the Honorary Skou Professors