Young registry researcher receives talent prize
The Lundbeck Foundation Talent Award 2015 has recently been awarded to Sigrún Alba Jóhannesdóttir Schmidt from the Department of Clinical Medicine at Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital. The award is given to researchers under the age of thirty who have produced particularly promising research in the field of health science.
Sigrún Schmidt graduated as a medical doctor from Aarhus University and has been enrolled as a PhD student since 1 February 2014. Her PhD project deals with the occurrence, risk factors and prognosis of shingles infections in Denmark.
"I work on register-based research, that is to say, research based on electronic health data from the Danish registers. My primary research areas are skin diseases and cancer. I’m also interested in methods within the field of register-based research and I have contributed to a couple of overview articles on Danish registers," she says.
Independent and committed young researcher
The Lundbeck Foundation has given the talent award to Sigrún Schmidt because she is a very dynamic and committed researcher. She was nominated for the award by the dean of the Faculty of Health at Aarhus University, Allan Flyvbjerg. He thinks the award is well deserved:
"Sigrún is hard-working and independent. Despite her young age, she has already made a significant contribution to her field of research. She has built-up a large international network among national and, in particular, international researchers and her scientific production is large and of a high quality. She is simply good at what she does," says Allan Flyvbjerg.
Danish data contains great potential
The award winner hopes that the award will draw attention to the research potential that Danish health data contains.
"A large part of the knowledge we have about risk factors and prognosis for many diseases stems from health data. The Danish registers contain valuable health data, which means that Denmark has unique position within the field of international research. In addition, the registers form the basis for quality improvement in the healthcare system," says Sigrún Schmidt and continues:
"I'm very honoured to receive the award. I see it as is a great recognition of the work that my colleagues and I are doing in register-based research. What’s more, I’m still at the beginning of my research career, so it’s also a big motivating factor for my continued work.”
The young researcher completed a research year in 2010-2011 at the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and has since been affiliated with the department while completing her medical studies. During this time she has also been on two research stays in the USA at the Ohio State University in Columbus and at the California Pacific Medical Center Research Institute in San Francisco. Furthermore, from 1 December this year Sigrún Schmidt will again take her research abroad. This time she is moving to London for a six-month research stay at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
Further information
Sigrún Alba Jóhannesdóttir Schmidt
Aarhus University, Department of Clinical Medicine and
Aarhus University Hospital, Department of Clinical Epidemiology
Tel.: (+45) 8716 8245
saj@clin.au.dk