Sofie Hindkjær Lautrup receives Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II’s Travel Grant
During Aarhus University's Annual Celebration on Friday 9 September 2016, Sofie H. Lautrup from the Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics receives a travel grant to study in the USA.
Sofie H. Lautrup is working on the first part of her PhD project in molecular biology. She completed her Bachelor’s degree with high marks, and was admitted to the graduate school’s 3+5 scheme in 2014 with Tinna V. Stevnsner as supervisor.
In her research project, Sofie is investigating the positive effects on the brain of certain substances produced by the body during exercise, which include cognitive skills in elderly. In the longer term, Sofie’s project is expected to contribute to new forms of prevention and therapy. The preliminary results of her research are promising, and she expect to be able to publish her work in an internationally recognised journal in the coming year.
Sofie is not only a very talented, committed and energetic student. She has also worked as a student counsellor for molecular biology and students and has taken on teaching in connection with demanding courses for younger students as well as lab sections for primary and secondary school pupils in the context of her job as an internship coordinator at the university.
She will use the travel grant in connection with an eight-month research stay at the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health (NIH) in the United States, where she will have access to unique mouse models which will be of great benefit to her research.
The award was established in 2010 as a present to Her Majesty Queen Margrethe on the occasion of The Queen’s 70th birthday, and widened in 2012 on the occasion of The Queen’s 40th Jubilee. A total of four awards are granted, one to a student at each of the four main academic areas. Two of the awards are always reserved for a student of political science (The School of Business and Social Sciences) and a student of archaeology (The Faculty of Arts), as The Queen studied these subjects as a student at Aarhus University in 1961-62. The award of DKK 25,000 is intended to enable the award winners to spend a study period abroad in connection with their studies at Aarhus University.