In collaboration with Langeland Municipality, where Hans Christian Ørsted was born, and with funding from the energy company Ørsted, the Hans Christian Ørsted Society (H.C. Ørsted Selskabet) is awarding this year’s Hans Christian Ørsted research award and two Hans Christian Ørsted research talent awards. The awards celebrate Hans Christian Ørsted’s influence on culture, art, and science, and in celebration of the bicentenary year of Hans Christian Ørsted’s discovery of electromagnetism, the awards will be presented to researchers working with electromagnetism and its wider use – e.g. in the green transformation.
Professor Jacob Østergaard, Chairman of the Award Committee, says, “We’re delighted to once again have found three very qualified awards winners. They all deserve great recognition for their ground-breaking research. It’s also a perfect fit, as all the winners’ research can so clearly be traced back to Hans Christian Ørsted’s discovery of electromagnetism 200 years ago.”
Troels Krøyer, Chairman of H.C. Ørsted Selskabet, says the following about the winner of this year’s main award: “Olav Breinbjerg is one of the world’s leading researchers in antennas, antenna measurements, and calculation methods used in wireless communication. His research has profound significance and is of great relevance to society. Olav Breinbjerg’s research is based directly on Hans Christian Ørsted’s discovery of electromagnetism, and that’s why it’s especially delightful to be able to hand out the Hans Christian Ørsted research award to him this year.”
The two research talent awards will be presented to two young researchers whose work has already won international recognition. The research talents are Anne E.B. Nielsen, who has a PhD in physics from Aarhus University and is currently researching anyons and light, and Dennis Valbjørn Christensen, who has a PhD from the Technical University of Denmark – DTU – and conducts research into electromagnetism in nanosystems.
Danish energy company Ørsted’s Head of Strategy & Communication, Jakob Askou Bøss, is pleased that the award winners’ research may help the green transformation in the long term: “All three winners this year are working on important and fascinating research that also can provide us with new solutions for the green transformation of the world’s energy systems. The work of the three award winners is a good example of what it will take for us to still lead the way in the future.”
The award ceremony will take place on Hans Christian Ørsted’s birthday on 14 August in Rudkøbing, his place of birth on the island of Langeland, south-west of Zealand. Mayor of Langeland Municipality and Hans Christian Ørsted Ambassador, Tonni Hansen, is looking forward to celebrating the award winners at the school Ørstedskolen: “This year, we’re going all in on the celebration of the bicentenary year of Ørsted’s discovery of electromagnetism, and the entire island of Langeland celebrates Hans Christian Ørsted as the brilliant scientist, cultural personality, language innovator, and pioneer that he was. We’re proud that Rudkøbing is where he spent the first important years of his childhood and youth.”
