In 1997 Jens Christian Skou received the Nobel Prize in chemistry for his discovery of the sodium-potassium pump – a small but vital mechanism found in all of the body’s cells. The pump maintains a salt balance by transporting ions through the cell membrane, which is a prerequisite for muscles and nerves being able to function.
His importance to health science research globally and locally at Aarhus University as a whole and at the Department of Biomedicine in particular has been immeasurable.
A biochemist, Jens Christian Skou began working at Aarhus University in 1947 and was appointed professor in biophysics in 1977 before being award the Nobel Prize 20 years later. Jens Christian Skou died in 2018, 99 years old.
On 11 October 2010 the world press could break the news that Economics Professor Dale T. Mortensen received the Nobel Prize together with Peter Diamond, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Christopher Pissarides, London School of Economics.
Dale T. Mortensen was affiliated with the Department of Economics and Business Economics at Aarhus BSS three months a year. He spent the rest of his time at Northwestern University in Chicago.
They were awarded the Nobel Prize for their work on the search friction theories which can explain a wide range of aspects that traditional economics textbooks are not able to explain using pure supply/demand theory.
The search friction models serve to explain why employees who at first glanc have the same qualifications, job functions etc. nonetheless do not get equal pay, why the turnover rate of seemingly identical houses can vary within the same geographical area or why people pay different interest rates on their loans.
In 2017, Aarhus University established the Dale T. Mortensen Centre.
