At the annual celebration on 11 September, Vice-Chancellor Lauritz B. Holm-Nielsen awarded two prizes – an award for university pedagogics and a research communication award. The prizes went to two of Aarhus University’s acknowledged researchers in recognition of their excellent work within the fields of education and research communication, respectively.

Prize winner Pernille Rattleff

Associate Professor Pernille Rattleff, Director of Studies, MSc (Economics), PhD, received Aarhus University’s award for university pedagogics valued at DKK 100,000 (approximately EUR 13,000) in recognition of her efforts in providing outstanding and ground-breaking education at Aarhus University.

Pernille Rattleff is an associate professor at the Danish School of Education (DPU), where she conducts research into IT and learning, as well as lecturing on the theories of adult learning, philosophy of science and research methodologies, systems theory and organisational theory. At the same time, she is Director of Studies for the seven Master’s degree programmes at the Department of Didactics.

Associate Professor Rattleff has played a crucial role at the Danish School of Education in the pedagogical development of the degree programmes at the school and DPU’s own teaching activities for the students.

She is one of the driving forces behind DPU’s new Master’s degree programme in IT didactic design, for which she has developed a model for IT teaching in educational psychology, where systematic video streaming is now used for parts of the teaching, supported by different online activities on Blackboard – DPU’s e-learning platform.

The main heading for Associate Professor Rattleff’s research is IT and learning. She is currently involved in a project to study the students’ understanding and use of mathematics in Aarhus University’s economics study programmes.

Prize winner Allan Flyvbjerg

Professor Allan Flyvbjerg, Consultant, DrMedSc, received the Aarhus University Anniversary Foundation’s research communication award in recognition of his outstanding and ground-breaking communication of knowledge from the university to society.

Dr Flyvbjerg is not only a professor of experimental clinical research at Aarhus University, but is also a consultant at Aarhus University Hospital, Medical Department M, which is concerned with diabetes and endocrinology.

Dr Flyvbjerg and his research group are currently regarded as being among the international leaders in research into the causes of obesity, cardiovascular problems and diabetes. He has written more than 400 scientific articles, especially on the topics mentioned above, and he has been both lecturer and keynote speaker at more than 80 international scientific congresses.

At the same time, he has succeeded in bridging the gap between the world of science and the general public during the last 15 years. In numerous articles, contributions to debate, TV and radio features, lectures and participation in non-university working groups, he has spread the message about the correlation between obesity, cardiovascular diseases and diabetes.

He has elegantly relayed the fact that, on the one hand, these diseases can be incapacitating and life-threatening while, on the other hand, effective prevention, early screening and optimal treatment result in the affected people being able to live a long and good life on an equal footing with all other members of Danish society.

Dr Flyvbjerg has been Chairman of the Danish Diabetes Association for the last eight years, and he has also been appointed to a considerable number of positions of trust in bodies such as the Ministry of Health and Prevention, the Ministry of Employment, and Denmark’s National Board of Health.

Press photo of Pernille Rattleff

11 September 2009

Rasmus Stensgaard
Communicattion Office
rst@adm.au.dk