It's a great pleasure for Aarhus University to learn that Professor Karl Anker Jørgensen has been awarded a gold H.C. Ørsted Medal has been awarded.

This is the press release from the Society for the Dissemination of Natural Science:

In collaboration with the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, the Society for the Dissemination of Natural Science has decided to award an H.C. Ørsted Gold Medal in chemistry, with an associated travel grant as a prelude to the bicentenary of H. C. Ørsted's discovery of electromagnetism in 1820.

For the first time in 30 years, a gold H.C. Ørsted Medal has been awarded. The recipient selected to join the distinguished group of previous recipients is Professor Karl Anker Jørgensen from Aarhus University. He has been awarded the medal for his internationally ground-breaking research in the field of catalytic chemistry and his exceptional ability to communicate scientific results to a broader audience. This is in full accordance with H.C. Ørsted's own visions, for example when he established of the Society for the Dissemination of Natural Science in 1824.

The gold medal and the travel grant of DKK 75,000 for Karl Anker Jørgensen were made possible through support from the Ørsted energy company.

Karl Anker Jørgensen's research field is asymmetrical catalysis. Using nature's own chemistry, he has developed catalysts that can control the three-dimensional formation and structure of molecules that appear as mirror images of each other, so that, for example, only one of the mirror-image molecules is formed. In living organisms, only one mirror-image type of a given molecule occurs, so research into the formation of these molecules extends far beyond chemistry to humans, animals and plants, and it is the foundation for all life. Karl Anker Jørgensen’s research has found an industrial application to manufacture medical products under more sustainable conditions.

The gold H.C. Ørsted Medal is awarded for outstanding scientific work in the field of physics and chemistry. The medal is only rarely awarded. Most recently, it was awarded to Professor Thor A. Bak in 1989. The first recipient was the inventor of the pH scale, Professor S.P.L. Sørensen in 1909. In total, it has been awarded 17 times in 110 years, and recipients include two Nobel prize winners, Niels Bohr (1924) and Aage Bohr (1970).  

The gold medal and the award will be presented by Her Majesty the Queen at the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters on 16 October 2019.

The press is welcome – however, journalists and photographers are required to register by no later than 2:00 pm on 14 October with Kristoffer Frøkjær, head of communications - kf@videnskabernesselskab.dk, tel. +45 33 43 53 20

For further information about the medal and the award recipient, please contact the President of the Society for the Dissemination of Natural Science, Dorte Olesen - doole@dtu.dk, tel. +45 21 26 03 50.  

For further information about the Society for the Dissemination of Natural Science and previous medal recipients, go to www.naturvidenskab.net.   

Society for the Dissemination of Natural Science – outstanding communication for almost 200 years.
After his great discovery, H.C. Ørsted went on a long lecture trip and discovered that in both England and France there were societies in which anyone could hear about the latest advances in physics and chemistry, and hear about the significance of science for the business community. Therefore, in 1824 he founded the Society for the Dissemination of Natural Science. He began to hold lectures himself that were open for everyone in Copenhagen, and he found talented lecturers in many other cities in Denmark as well. The Jacobsen brewing family were among his listeners in Copenhagen, and they were the first members of the Society for the Dissemination of Natural Science. The Society for the Dissemination of Natural Science still focuses on the best and most recent communication of natural sciences, and rewards outstanding research and communication with the H.C. Ørsted Medals.

Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters
Through its more than 275-year-long history, the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters has played a central role in Danish research, and ever since its formation, the Academy has counted among its members important researchers such as Niels Bohr, Marie Curie, Albert Einstein and Charles Darwin. The gold H.C. Ørsted was not only a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, he also played a leading role in the scientific world of the time, for example he was the society secretary for more than 35 years (1815-1851).

Ørsted
The energy company Ørsted is driven by a vision of a world running exclusively on green energy. Ørsted is inspired by H.C. Ørsted's curiosity about nature, and H.C. Ørsted's discovery of electromagnetism is the foundation for modern electricity generation; the core activity of the Ørsted company. Karl Anker