Poul Nissen receives the Rigmor and Carl Holst-Knudsen Award for Scientific Research
Both recently graduated and experienced researchers are being honoured at a ceremony at Aarhus University on Friday 28 May 2010. A total of eight scientists – all of whom began their careers at Aarhus University – are being rewarded for their efforts with recognition and research grants.
This year, the Rigmor and Carl Holst-Knudsen Award for Scientific Research goes to two internationally recognised scientists who both began their careers at Aarhus University. They are Professor Poul Nissen, who is still attached to Aarhus University as Centre Director, and Bjarne Stroustrup, who is currently Professor at the Texas A&M University, USA.
On the same occasion, the Aarhus University Research Foundation is awarding PhD prizes to six recently graduated PhD researchers. The prize winners studied at different main academic areas of the university, and they therefore represent the scope of research activities at Aarhus University.
Poul Nissen
Ground-breaking cell research with therapeutic potential
Poul Nissen was born in 1967 and completed his MSc in Chemistry at Aarhus University in 1993. After completing his PhD in 1997, he was awarded the gold medal by the Danish Academy of Natural Sciences for his dissertation.
Working as a postdoctoral scholar with Thomas A. Steitz at Yale University, Professor Nissen took part in the cell research that resulted in Steitz being awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2009. Professor Nissen returned to Aarhus University in 2000 to continue research into the function of cellular pumps, for which Jens Christian Skou (Professor Emeritus at Aarhus University) also received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1997.
Poul Nissen was appointed Professor of Protein Biochemistry in 2006 and Director of the newly established Centre for Membrane Pumps in Cells and Disease – PUMPKIN – at Aarhus University in 2007. The centre’s research will lead to considerable insight into pumps, which can be used to develop new and improved treatment for different conditions, such as cancer, infections and heart disease.