100 Notable alumni of
University of Copenhagen
Updated:
The University of Copenhagen is 112th in the world, 41st in Europe, and 1st in Denmark by aggregated alumni prominence. Below is the list of 100 notable alumni from the University of Copenhagen sorted by their wiki pages popularity. The directory includes famous graduates and former students along with research and academic staff. 5 individuals affiliated with the University of Copenhagen won Nobel Prizes in Physics, Chemistry, and Physiology or Medicine.
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Hans Christian Andersen
- Occupations
- fairy tale tellerlibrettistjournalistchildren's writerauthor
- Biography
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Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.
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Niels Bohr
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- 1903-1911 graduated with Doctor of Philosophy
- Occupations
- chemistphilosopher of scienceuniversity teachernuclear physicistassociation football player
- Biography
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Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. He was also a philosopher and a promoter of scientific research.
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Søren Kierkegaard
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- Graduated with Doctor of Philosophy in theology
- Occupations
- poetliterary criticwritertheologiannovelist
- Biography
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Søren Aabye Kierkegaard was a Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical texts on organized religion, Christianity, morality, ethics, psychology, love, and the philosophy of religion, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony, and parables. Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues of how one lives as a "single individual", highlighting the importance of authenticity, personal choice and commitment, and the duty to love. Kierkegaard prioritized concrete human reality over abstract thinking.
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Lars Mikkelsen
- Occupations
- video game actorstreet artistfilm actortelevision actormime artist
- Biography
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Lars Dittmann Mikkelsen is a Danish actor. He is known for his roles as Copenhagen mayoral election candidate Troels Hartmann in the Danish police procedural The Killing, the character Charles Augustus Magnussen in the third series of the BBC programme Sherlock, fictional Russian president Viktor Petrov in the American political thriller TV series House of Cards, mage Stregobor on the Netflix series The Witcher, and Grand Admiral Thrawn in Star Wars Rebels and Ahsoka. In 2011, he won the Reumert Prize of Honour for his contributions to Danish theatre.
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Tycho Brahe
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- Studied in 1559-1562
- Occupations
- alchemistpoetwriterastrologerastronomer
- Biography
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Tycho Brahe, generally called Tycho for short, was a Danish astronomer known for his comprehensive and unprecedentedly accurate astronomical observations which helped to turn astronomy into the first modern science and launch the Scientific Revolution. He was known during his lifetime as an astronomer, astrologer, and alchemist. He was the last major astronomer before the invention of the telescope and has been described as the greatest pre-telescopic astronomer.
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Mette Frederiksen
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- In 2009 graduated with Master degree in Denmark in African studies
- Occupations
- trade unionistpolitician
- Biography
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Mette Frederiksen K.1 is a Danish politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Denmark since 2019 and the Leader of the Social Democrats since 2015. She is the second woman to hold either office and is also the youngest prime minister in Danish history. She is the first prime minister to be born after Margrethe II's accession to the throne, and the first to serve under Frederik X.
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Alex Høgh Andersen
- Occupations
- voice actoractor
- Biography
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Alex Høgh Andersen is a Danish actor. He is mostly known for the role of Ivar the Boneless in the historical drama television series Vikings (2016–2020).
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Hans Christian Ørsted
- Occupations
- chemistuniversity teacherpharmacistengineerinventor
- Biography
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Hans Christian Ørsted, sometimes transliterated as Oersted, was a Danish chemist and physicist who discovered that electric currents create magnetic fields. This phenomenon is known as Oersted's law. He also discovered aluminium, a chemical element.
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Frederik IX of Denmark
- Occupations
- conductormonarchmusician
- Biography
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Frederik IX was King of Denmark from 1947 to 1972.
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Helle Thorning-Schmidt
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- 1987-1994 graduated with cand.scient.pol.
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Helle Thorning-Schmidt is a Danish retired politician who served as the 26th Prime Minister of Denmark from 2011 to 2015, and Leader of the Social Democrats from 2005 to 2015. She is the first woman to have held each post. Following defeat in 2015, she announced that she would step down as both Danish Prime Minister and Social Democratic party leader. Ending her political career in April 2016, she was the chief executive of the NGO Save the Children until June 2019.
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Lars Løkke Rasmussen
- Occupations
- juristpolitician
- Biography
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Lars Løkke Rasmussen K.1 is a Danish politician serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs and as Leader of the Moderates since 2022. He previously served two non-consecutive terms as Prime Minister of Denmark and as Leader of Venstre between 2009 and 2019.
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Peter Freuchen
- Occupations
- explorerwriterjournalistanthropologistactor
- Biography
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Lorenz Peter Elfred Freuchen was a Danish explorer, author, journalist and anthropologist. He is notable for his role in Arctic exploration, namely the Thule Expeditions.
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Vigdís Finnbogadóttir
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is an Icelandic politician who was the fourth president of Iceland, serving from 1980 to 1996, the first woman to hold the position and the first in the world to be democratically elected president of a country. Having served for 16 years, she was also the longest-serving elected female head of state in history. Vigdís is a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador and a member of the Club of Madrid.
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Hans Christian Gram
- Occupations
- bacteriologistbotanistpharmacologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Hans Christian Joachim Gram was a Danish bacteriologist who developed the Gram stain, still a standard technique to classify bacteria and visualize them under a microscope.
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Bjørn Lomborg
- Occupations
- economistuniversity teacherstatisticianpolitical scientistecologist
- Biography
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Bjørn Lomborg is a Danish political scientist, author, and the president of the think tank Copenhagen Consensus Center. He is the former director of the Danish government's Environmental Assessment Institute (EAI) in Copenhagen. He became internationally known for his best-selling book The Skeptical Environmentalist (2001).
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Danica Curcic
- Occupations
- voice actorstage actoractorfilm actor
- Biography
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Danica Curcic ) (born 27 August 1985 in Belgrade) is a Serbian-Danish actress.
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Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu
- Occupations
- teacherengineerinventor
- Biography
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Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu was a Romanian engineer who was one of the first women to obtain a degree in engineering. She was born in the Romanian town of Galați but qualified in Berlin. During World War I she managed a hospital in Romania.
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Aage Bohr
- Occupations
- nuclear physicistpedagoguephysicist
- Biography
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Aage Niels Bohr was a Danish nuclear physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1975 with Ben Roy Mottelson and James Rainwater "for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection". His father was Niels Bohr.
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Ole Rømer
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- Studied in 1662
- Occupations
- physicistpolice officeruniversity teachermathematicianjudge
- Biography
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Ole Christensen Rømer was a Danish astronomer who, in 1676, first demonstrated that light travels at a finite speed. Rømer also invented the modern thermometer showing the temperature between two fixed points, namely the points at which water boils and freezes.
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Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen
- Occupations
- chemist
- Biography
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Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen was a Danish chemist, known for the introduction of the concept of pH, a scale for measuring acidity and alkalinity.
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Ludvig Holberg
- Occupations
- university teacherhistorianwriteressayistautobiographer
- Biography
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Ludvig Holberg, Baron of Holberg was a writer, essayist, philosopher, historian and playwright born in Bergen, Norway, during the time of the Dano–Norwegian dual monarchy. He was influenced by Humanism, the Enlightenment and the Baroque. Holberg is considered the founder of modern Danish and Norwegian literature. He was also a prominent Neo-Latin author, known across Europe for his writing. He is best known for the comedies he wrote in 1722–1723 for the Lille Grønnegade Theatre in Copenhagen. Holberg's works about natural and common law were widely read by many Danish law students over two hundred years, from 1736 to 1936.
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Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig
- Occupations
- hymnwriterhistorianphilologistphilosopherpoet
- Biography
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Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig, most often referred to as N. F. S. Grundtvig, was a Danish pastor, author, poet, philosopher, historian, teacher and politician. He was one of the most influential people in Danish history, as his philosophy gave rise to a new form of nationalism in the last half of the 19th century. It was steeped in the national literature and supported by deep spirituality.
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Nicolas Steno
- Occupations
- anatomistCatholic priestcrystallographergeologistpaleontologist
- Biography
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Niels Steensen was a Danish scientist, a pioneer in both anatomy and geology who became a Catholic bishop in his later years. He has been beatified by the Catholic Church.
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Jens Otto Krag
- Occupations
- diplomateconomistpolitician
- Biography
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Jens Otto Krag was a Danish politician, who served as the prime minister of Denmark from 1962 to 1968 and again from 1971 to 1972, and as leader of the Social Democrats from 1962 to 1972. He was president of the Nordic Council in 1971.
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Poul Nyrup Rasmussen
- Occupations
- politicianeconomist
- Biography
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Poul Oluf Nyrup Rasmussen is a retired Danish politician, who served as Prime Minister of Denmark from 25 January 1993 to 27 November 2001 and President of the Party of European Socialists (PES) from 2004 to 2011. He was the leader of the governing Social Democrats from 1992 to 2002 and was also a member of the European Parliament from 2004 to 2009.
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Hans Egede
- Occupations
- explorermissionarypastortranslatorlinguist
- Biography
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Hans Poulsen Egede was a Norwegian Lutheran priest and missionary who launched mission efforts to Greenland, which led him to be styled the Apostle of Greenland. He established a successful mission among the Inuit and is credited with revitalizing Danish-Norwegian interest in the island after contact had been broken for about 300 years. He founded Greenland's capital Godthåb, now known as Nuuk.
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Poul Schlüter
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Poul Holmskov Schlüter was a Danish politician who served as Prime Minister of Denmark from 1982 to 1993. He was the first (and to date, only) member of the Conservative People's Party to become prime minister, as well as the first conservative to hold the office since 1901. Schlüter was a member of the Folketing (Danish parliament) for the Conservative People's Party from 1964 to 1994. He was also Chairman of the Conservative People's Party from 1974 to 1977 and from 1981 to 1993.
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Inge Lehmann
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- In 1968 graduated with cand.mag.
- Occupations
- geologistsurveyorgeophysicistseismologistnaturalist
- Biography
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Inge Lehmann was a Danish seismologist and geophysicist who is known for her discovery in 1936 of the solid inner core that exists within the molten outer core of the Earth. She also discovered the seismic discontinuity in the speed of seismic waves at depths between 190 and 250 km, which is named the Lehmann discontinuity after her. Lehmann is considered to be a pioneer among women and scientists in seismology research.
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Georg Brandes
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- Studied aesthetics
- Occupations
- autobiographeruniversity teacherjournalistliterary historianliterary critic
- Biography
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Georg Morris Cohen Brandes was a Danish critic and scholar who greatly influenced Scandinavian and European literature from the 1870s through the turn of the 20th century. He is seen as the theorist behind the "Modern Breakthrough" of Scandinavian culture. At the age of 30, Brandes formulated the principles of a new realism and naturalism, condemning hyper-aesthetic writing and also fantasy in literature. His literary goals were shared by some other authors, among them the Norwegian "realist" playwright Henrik Ibsen.
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Nella Larsen
- Occupations
- writernovelistnurselibrarian
- Biography
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Nellallitea "Nella" Larsen was an American novelist. Working as a nurse and a librarian, she published two novels, Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929), and a few short stories. Though her literary output was scant, she earned recognition by her contemporaries.
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Ida Auken
- Occupations
- theologianpriestpolitician
- Biography
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Ida Margrete Meier Auken is a Danish politician and member of the Folketing for the Social Democrats political party. She has been a member of parliament since 2007. She was Minister for the Environment of Denmark from 2011 to 2014. Until 2014 she was a member of the Socialist People's Party, after which she moved to the Danish Social Liberal Party. In 2021, she switched to the Social Democrats.
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Piet Hein
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- Studied in 1924
- Occupations
- poetwriterdesignermathematicianinventor
- Biography
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Piet Hein was a Danish polymath (mathematician, inventor, designer, writer and poet), often writing under the Old Norse pseudonym Kumbel, meaning "tombstone". His short poems, known as gruks or grooks (Danish: gruk), first started to appear in the daily newspaper Politiken shortly after the German occupation of Denmark in April 1940 under the pseudonym "Kumbel Kumbell". He also invented the Soma cube and the board game Hex.
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Ole Nydahl
- Occupations
- yogiteacherwriter
- Biography
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Ole Nydahl, also known as Lama Ole, is a lama providing Mahamudra teachings in the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. Since the early 1970s, Nydahl has toured the world giving lectures and meditation courses. With his wife, Hannah Nydahl (1946-2007), he founded Diamond Way Buddhism, a worldwide Karma Kagyu Buddhist organization with over 600 centers for lay practitioners.
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Peter Høeg
- Occupations
- writer
- Biography
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Peter Høeg is a Danish writer of fiction. He is best known for his novel Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow (1992).
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Morten Messerschmidt
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- 2000-2009 graduated with jurist
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Morten Messerschmidt is a Danish politician and since 2022 leader of the Danish People's Party. He was an elected Member of the Folketing at the 2019 Danish general election having previously served from 2005 to 2009. At the 2014 European Parliament election, he was elected a Member of the European Parliament for Denmark with 465,758; the highest number of personal votes ever cast at a Danish election.
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Johannes V. Jensen
- Occupations
- correspondentcolumnistwritertranslator-interpreteressayist
- Biography
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Johannes Vilhelm Jensen was a Danish author, known as one of the great Danish writers of the first half of 20th century. He was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the rare strength and fertility of his poetic imagination with which is combined an intellectual curiosity of wide scope and a bold, freshly creative style". One of his sisters, Thit Jensen, was also a well-known writer and a very vocal, and occasionally controversial, early feminist.
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Ove Arup
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- Studied in 1913
- Occupations
- engineerstructural engineerentrepreneurarchitect
- Biography
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Sir Ove Nyquist Arup was a British engineer with Danish heritage who founded Arup, a multinational corporation offering engineering, design, planning, project management, and consulting services for building systems. Ove Arup is considered to be among the foremost architectural structural engineers of his time.
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Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted
- Occupations
- university teacherchemistphysicist
- Biography
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Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted was a Danish physical chemist who is best known for developing the Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory; he developed the theory at the same time as (but independently of) Martin Lowry.
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Kaj Munk
- Occupations
- screenwritertheologianplaywrightLutheran pastorpoet
- Biography
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Kaj Harald Leininger Munk was a Danish playwright and Lutheran pastor, known for his cultural engagement and his martyrdom during the Occupation of Denmark of World War II. He is commemorated as a martyr in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on 14 August, alongside Maximilian Kolbe.
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Niels Ryberg Finsen
- Years
- 1860-1904 (aged 44)
- Occupations
- university teacherscientistphysician
- Biography
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Niels Ryberg Finsen was a physician and scientist. In 1903, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology "in recognition of his contribution to the treatment of diseases, especially lupus vulgaris, with concentrated light radiation, whereby he has opened a new avenue for medical science."
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Ester Boserup
- Occupations
- writereconomist
- Biography
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Ester Boserup was a Danish economist. She studied economic and agricultural development, worked at the United Nations as well as other international organizations, and wrote seminal books on agrarian change and the role of women in development.
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Eske Willerslev
- Occupations
- university teacherbiologist
- Biography
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Eske Willerslev is a Danish evolutionary geneticist notable for his pioneering work in molecular anthropology, palaeontology and ecology. He currently holds the Prince Philip Professorship in Ecology and Evolution at University of Cambridge, UK and the Lundbeck Foundation Professorship in Evolution at Copenhagen University, Denmark. He is director of the Centre of Excellence in GeoGenetics, a research associate at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute and a professorial fellow at St John's College, Cambridge. Willerslev is a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences (US) and holds the Order of the Dannebrog issued by her Majesty Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in 2017.
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Jens Peter Jacobsen
- Occupations
- novelistwritertranslatorbotanistpoet
- Biography
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Jens Peter Jacobsen was a Danish novelist, poet, and scientist, in Denmark often just written as "J. P. Jacobsen". He began the naturalist movement in Danish literature and was a part of the Modern Breakthrough.
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Mogens Lykketoft
- Occupations
- diplomatpolitician
- Biography
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Mogens Lykketoft is a Danish politician who served as Leader of the Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterne) from 2002 to 2005.
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Adam Oehlenschläger
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- Studied in 1800
- Occupations
- autobiographerlibrettistuniversity teacherlyricistpoet
- Biography
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Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger was a Danish poet and playwright. He introduced romanticism into Danish literature. He wrote the lyrics to the song Der er et yndigt land, which is one of the national anthems of Denmark.
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Gøsta Esping-Andersen
- Occupations
- economistpolitical scientistsociologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Gøsta Esping-Andersen is a Danish sociologist whose primary focus has been on the welfare state and its place in capitalist economies. Jacob Hacker describes him as the "dean of welfare state scholars". Over the past decade his research has moved towards family demographic issues. A synthesis of his work was published as Families in the 21st Century (Stockholm, SNS, 2016).
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Naser Khader
- Occupations
- politicianwriterresearcherinterpreterradio personality
- Biography
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Naser Khader is a Syrian-Danish politician and member of the Folketing 2001–2011 and again 2015–2022. Until 2021 he was a member of the Conservative People's Party.
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Otto Jespersen
- Occupations
- university teacherpedagogueautobiographerwriterscholar of English
- Biography
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Jens Otto Harry Jespersen was a Danish linguist who worked in foreign-language pedagogy, historical phonetics, and other areas, but is best known for his description of the grammar of the English language. Steven Mithen describes him as "one of the greatest language scholars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."
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Sveinn Björnsson
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- Studied law
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Sveinn Björnsson was the first president of Iceland, serving from 1944 to 1952.
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Pernille Skipper
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- 2004-2011 graduated with jurist
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Pernille Skipper is a Danish former politician. She was a member of the Folketing from 2011 to 2022, and was political spokesperson for the Red–Green Alliance from 2016 to 2021, succeeding Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen. In 2021 she was replaced by Mai Villadsen.
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Harald Bohr
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- Studied in 1904-1910
- Occupations
- mathematicianpedagogueuniversity teacherassociation football player
- Biography
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Harald August Bohr was a Danish mathematician and footballer. After receiving his doctorate in 1910, Bohr became an eminent mathematician, founding the field of almost periodic functions. His brother was the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr. He was on the Denmark national team for the 1908 Summer Olympics, where he won a silver medal.
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Peter Naur
- Occupations
- computer scientistastronomerprogrammeruniversity teacher
- Biography
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Peter Naur was a Danish computer science pioneer and 2005 Turing Award winner. He is best remembered as a contributor, with John Backus, to the Backus–Naur form (BNF) notation used in describing the syntax for most programming languages. He also contributed to creating the language ALGOL 60.
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Søren Pind
- Occupations
- lawyerpolitician
- Biography
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Søren Pind is a Danish lawyer and former politician. He served as Danish Minister of Justice from 2015 to 2016, and as Minister of Science, Technology, Information and Higher Education from 2016 to May 2018, whereupon he retired from politics.
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Aksel V. Johannesen
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- Graduated with Candidate of Law
- Occupations
- lawyersports officialassociation football playerpolitician
- Biography
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Aksel Vilhelmsson Johannesen is a Faroese lawyer and politician who has been the Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands since 2022, and from 2015 to 2019. He has been a member of the Løgting since 2011, as a member of the Social Democratic Party. Prior to his tenure as prime minister he was Minister of Health Affairs and Minister of Finance.
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Ritt Bjerregaard
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Ritt Bjerregaard was a Danish politician who was a member of the Danish Social Democrats, and was Lord Mayor of Copenhagen from 1 January 2006 to 2010.
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Valdemar Poulsen
- Occupations
- technicianengineerphysicist
- Biography
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Valdemar Poulsen was a Danish engineer and inventor who developed a magnetic wire recorder called the telegraphone in 1898. He also made significant contributions to early radio technology, including the first continuous wave radio transmitter, the Poulsen arc, which was used for a majority of the earliest audio radio transmissions, before being supplanted by the development of vacuum-tube transmitters.
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August Krogh
- Occupations
- university teacherpedagoguezoologistphysiologistphysician
- Biography
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Schack August Steenberg Krogh ForMemRS was a Danish professor at the department of zoophysiology at the University of Copenhagen from 1916 to 1945. He contributed a number of fundamental discoveries within several fields of physiology, and is famous for developing Krogh's principle.
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Ole Worm
- Occupations
- physicistprehistorianuniversity teachernaturalistzoologist
- Biography
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Ole Worm, who often went by the Latinized form of his name Olaus Wormius, was a Danish physician, natural historian and antiquary. He was a professor at the University of Copenhagen where he taught Greek, Latin, physics and medicine.
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Petter Dass
- Occupations
- Lutheran pastorpoetwriter
- Biography
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Petter Pettersen Dass was a Lutheran priest and the foremost Norwegian poet of his generation, writing both baroque hymns and topographical poetry.
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Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil
- Occupations
- politicianorganizational worker
- Biography
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Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil is a Danish politician, who is a member of the Folketing for the Social Democrats political party. From 2019 to 2022, she has served as Minister of Children and Education. She was elected into parliament at the 2011 Danish general election. She had previously been a member of parliament from 2001 to 2007 as a member of the Red-Green Alliance. From 2011 to 2014, she was the spokesperson on climate and energy for the Social Democrats.
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Agner Krarup Erlang
- Occupations
- mathematicianengineerstatistician
- Biography
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Agner Krarup Erlang was a Danish mathematician, statistician and engineer, who invented the fields of traffic engineering and queueing theory.
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Johan Fabricius
- Occupations
- lepidopteristbiologistarachnologistuniversity teachercarcinologist
- Biography
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Johann Christian Fabricius was a Danish zoologist, specialising in the "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and is considered one of the most important entomologists of the 18th century, having named nearly 10,000 species of animals, and established the basis for the modern insect classification.
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Pia Olsen Dyhr
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- Studied in 1992-2010
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
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Pia Olsen Dyhr is a Danish politician and leader of The Green Left. She has been a member of the Folketing since the 2007 general election. Dyhr has served as Minister for Trade and Investment and later Minister of Transport in the first Helle Thorning-Schmidt Cabinet. Following her party's resignation from the cabinet, Dyhr was elected as chairwoman of the party.
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Steen Steensen Blicher
- Occupations
- translatorpoetpriestwriter
- Biography
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Steen Steensen Blicher was an author and poet born in Vium near Viborg, Denmark.
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Sherin Khankan
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- Graduated with master's degree in philosophy and sociology of religion
- Occupations
- women's rights activistsociologistdebaterimampolitician
- Biography
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Sherin Khankan is Denmark's (and Scandinavia's) first female imam; she founded a women-led mosque in Copenhagen. She is also an activist on Muslim issues including female integration and extremism, and has written numerous texts discussing Islam and politics.
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Wilhelm Ludwig Johannsen
- Occupations
- university teacherbotanistgeneticist
- Biography
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Wilhelm Johannsen was a Danish pharmacist, botanist, plant physiologist, and geneticist. He is best known for coining the terms gene, phenotype and genotype, and for his 1903 "pure line" experiments in genetics.
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Rasmus Rask
- Occupations
- philologisthistorical linguistlinguistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Rasmus Kristian Rask was a Danish linguist and philologist. He wrote several grammars and worked on comparative phonology and morphology. Rask traveled extensively to study languages, first to Iceland, where he wrote the first grammar of Icelandic, and later to Russia, Persia, India, and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Shortly before his death, he was hired as professor of Eastern languages at the University of Copenhagen. Rask is especially known for his contributions to comparative linguistics, including an early formulation of what would later be known as Grimm's Law. He was elected as a member to the American Philosophical Society in 1829.
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Holger Bech Nielsen
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- In 1968 graduated with Cand.scient.
- Occupations
- university teachertheoretical physicistphysicist
- Biography
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Holger Bech Nielsen is a Danish theoretical physicist and professor emeritus at the Niels Bohr Institute, at the University of Copenhagen, where he started studying physics in 1961.
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Christian Bohr
- Occupations
- biologistuniversity teacherpharmacistphysiologistphysicist
- Biography
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Christian Harald Lauritz Peter Emil Bohr was a Danish physician, father of the physicist and Nobel laureate Niels Bohr, as well as the mathematician and football player Harald Bohr and grandfather of another physicist and Nobel laureate Aage Bohr. He married Ellen Adler in 1881.
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Oskar Klein
- Occupations
- university teachertheoretical physicistphysicist
- Biography
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Oskar Benjamin Klein was a Swedish theoretical physicist now best remembered for the Klein-Gordon equation of relativistic quantum mechanics, the Kaluza-Klein theory, a unified field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism, and the Klein-Nishina cross section in quantum electrodynamics.
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Jens Christian Skou
- Occupations
- university teacherautobiographerchemistphysiologistbiochemist
- Biography
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Jens Christian Skou was a Danish biochemist and Nobel laureate.
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Morten P. Meldal
- Occupations
- researcherbiochemistchemist
- Biography
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Morten Peter Meldal is a Danish chemist and Nobel laureate. He is a professor of chemistry at the University of Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is best known for developing the CuAAC-click reaction, concurrently with but independent of Valery V. Fokin and K. Barry Sharpless.
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Peter Brixtofte
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- Graduated with Cand.polit.
- Occupations
- politicianediting staffjournalist
- Biography
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Peter Brixtofte was a Danish politician who was member of the Danish Parliament (Folketinget) representing Venstre from 1973 to 1977, from 1979 to 1981, during 1983 and from 1990 to 8 February 2005. Brixtofte served as the Tax Minister of Denmark from 19 November 1992 to 24 January 1993. He was also Mayor of Farum, and was criminally convicted for actions taken while holding that municipal office and was later jailed. He was the brother of Brixx member Jens Brixtofte.
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Mia Wagner
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- Studied in 1998-2003
- Occupations
- ministerchief executive officerlawyer
- Biography
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Mia Therese Wagner is a Danish businesswoman, lawyer and politician. Representing Venstre, she served as Minister for Digitalisation and Equality in the Frederiksen II Cabinet from November to December 2023.
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Jón Sigurðsson
- Occupations
- historianphilologistpolitician
- Biography
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Jón Sigurðsson was the leader of the 19th century Icelandic independence movement.
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Peter Wilhelm Punk
- Occupations
- botanical collectorscientific collectorzoologistarchaeologistanthropologist
- Biography
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Peter Wilhelm Lund was a Danish-Brazilian paleontologist, zoologist, and archeologist. He spent most of his life working and living in Brazil. He is considered the father of Brazilian paleontology as well as archaeology.
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Ditlev Gothard Monrad
- Occupations
- collectordiplomatfarmerprelate
- Biography
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Ditlev Gothard Monrad was a Danish politician and bishop, and a founding father of Danish constitutional democracy; he also led the country as Council President in its huge defeat during the Second Schleswig War. Later, he became a New Zealand pioneer before returning to Denmark to become a bishop and politician once more.
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Karen Melchior
- Occupations
- diplomatcivil servantpolitician
- Biography
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Karen Melchior is a Danish lawyer and politician, formerly of the Social Liberal Party, who has served as a Member of the European Parliament in 2019–2024.
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Sofie Carsten Nielsen
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Sofie Carsten Nielsen is a Danish politician, who was formerly the leader of the Danish Social Liberal Party from October 2020 to November 2022. In the 2000s, Nielsen began her political career with the European Parliament as a consultant before working for the Ministry of Gender Equality as a deputy minister. After being elected to the Folketing at the 2011 Danish general election for the Greater Copenhagen constituency, Nielsen became the Minister for Higher Education and Science in 2014. Nielsen remained in her minister position until she was replaced by Esben Lunde Larsen in 2015.
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Johannes Fibiger
- Occupations
- pathologistchemistuniversity teacherparasitologistbacteriologist
- Biography
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Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger was a Danish physician and professor of anatomical pathology at the University of Copenhagen. He was the recipient of the 1926 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his discovery of the Spiroptera carcinoma". He claimed to have shown that the roundworm which he called Spiroptera carcinoma (but is correctly named Gongylonema neoplasticum) could cause stomach cancer (squamous cell carcinoma) in rats and mice. His experimental results were later proven to be a case of mistaken conclusion.
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Hope Jahren
- Occupations
- geochemistbiologistgeologistgeobiologist
- Biography
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Anne Hope Jahren is an American geochemist and geobiologist at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, known for her work using stable isotope analysis to analyze fossil forests dating to the Eocene. She has won many awards in the field, including the James B. Macelwane Medal of the American Geophysical Union.
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Kristján Eldjárn
- Occupations
- anthropologistarchaeologistpoliticiancurator
- Biography
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Kristján Eldjárn was the third president of Iceland, serving from 1968 to 1980.
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Lykke Friis
- Occupations
- politicianeconomist
- Biography
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Lykke Friis is a Danish academic official and former politician. She is currently Prorector for Education at the University of Copenhagen, a position she previously held from 2006 to 2009. A member of the party Venstre, Friis served as Minister for Climate and Energy from 2009 to 2011, and Minister for Gender Equality from 2010 to 2011.
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Helmuth Nyborg
- Years
- 1937-.. (age 89)
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- In 1966 graduated with Bachelor of Arts in philosophy
- In 1968 graduated with Master of Arts in psychology
- Occupations
- canoeistscientistpsychologistuniversity teacher
- Biography
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Helmuth Sørensen Nyborg is a Danish psychologist, writer, far-right politician and former Olympic canoeist. He is a former professor of developmental psychology at Aarhus University. His main research topic is the connection between hormones and intelligence. Among other things, he has worked on increasing the intelligence of girls with Turner's syndrome by giving them estrogen. He has also stood as a candidate for the far-right party Stram Kurs. His publications have been described as scientific racism.
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Helle Helle
- Occupations
- writernovelist
- Biography
-
Helle Helle is a Danish writer. Basing her stories on episodes in the lives of ordinary people, she gained fame in 2005 with her novel Rødby-Puttgarden. Her books have been translated into 23 languages and are read by a broad audience in Denmark and abroad. She is a recipient of the Lifetime Award from the Danish Arts Foundation.
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Astrid Krag
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Astrid Krag is a Danish politician, who is a member of the Folketing for the Social Democrats political party. She served as the Minister of Social Affairs and the Interior in the Cabinet of Mette Frederiksen. She previously served as Minister of Health and Prevention in the Cabinet of Helle Thorning-Schmidt from October 2011 until January 2014.
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Nick Hækkerup
- Occupations
- politician
- Biography
-
Nick Hækkerup is a Danish writer and politician of Social Democrats who has been serving as the Minister of Justice in the Frederiksen Cabinet from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as Minister of Defence, and Minister of Health.
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Hans Kramers
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- Studied in 1916-1919
- Occupations
- university teachertheoretical physicistphysicist
- Biography
-
Hendrik Anthony "Hans" Kramers was a Dutch physicist who worked with Niels Bohr to understand how electromagnetic waves interact with matter and made important contributions to quantum mechanics and statistical physics.
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Kåre Schultz
- Occupations
- chief executive officereconomistbusinessperson
- Biography
-
Kåre Schultz is a Danish business executive. Was the chief executive officer of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries between September 2017 and December 2022.
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Hans Ørberg
- Occupations
- writergrammarianlatinistlanguage teacher
- Biography
-
Hans Henning Ørberg was a Danish linguist and teacher. He received a master's degree in English, French, and Latin at the University of Copenhagen and taught these languages in many Danish high schools until 1963 and then taught in a Danish Gymnasium until 1988. He was the author of LINGVA LATINA PER SE ILLVSTRATA, a widely used method for learning Latin through the natural method.
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Ásgeir Ásgeirsson
- Years
- 1894-1972 (aged 78)
- Occupations
- politicianbanker
- Biography
-
Ásgeir Ásgeirsson was the second president of Iceland; he served from 1952 to 1968. He also served as the prime minister of Iceland from 3 June 1932 to 28 July 1934 for the Progressive Party. Ásgeir is the only person in Iceland to date to serve both as president and prime minister. He was a Freemason and served as grand master of the Icelandic Order of Freemasons.
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Thomas Bartholin
- Occupations
- physician
- Biography
-
Thomas Bartholin was a Danish physician, mathematician, and theologian. He discovered the lymphatic system in humans and advanced the theory of refrigeration anesthesia, being the first to describe it scientifically.
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Niels Kaj Jerne
- Occupations
- university teacherimmunologistphysician
- Biography
-
Niels Kaj Jerne, FRS was a Danish immunologist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 with Georges J. F. Köhler and César Milstein "for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies".
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Stine Bosse
- Enrolled in the University of Copenhagen
- Graduated with Candidate of Law
- Occupations
- businesspersonpolitician
- Biography
-
Christine "Stine" Bosse is a Danish businesswoman and Member of the European Parliament. Bosse led the Moderates's list for the 2024 European election.
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Vilhelm Thomsen
- Occupations
- writerTurkologistlinguistuniversity teacher
- Biography
-
Vilhelm Ludwig Peter Thomsen was a Danish linguist and Turkologist. He successfully deciphered the Turkic Orkhon inscriptions which were discovered during the expedition of Nikolai Yadrintsev in 1889.
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Johan Ludvig Heiberg
- Occupations
- classical philologisthellenistuniversity teacherhistorian of mathematicslinguist
- Biography
-
Johan Ludvig Heiberg was a Danish philologist and historian. He is best known for his discovery of previously unknown texts in the Archimedes Palimpsest, and for his edition of Euclid's Elements that T. L. Heath translated into English. He also published an edition of Ptolemy's Almagest.
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Connie Hedegaard
- Occupations
- journalistpolitician
- Biography
-
Connie Hedegaard Koksbang is a Danish politician and public intellectual. She was European Commissioner for Climate Action in the (second Barroso) European Commission from 10 February 2010 through 31 October 2014.
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Jónas Hallgrímsson
- Occupations
- writerpoetlawyerjournalist
- Biography
-
Jónas Hallgrímsson was an Icelandic poet, writer and naturalist. He was one of the founders of the Icelandic journal Fjölnir, which was first published in Copenhagen in 1835. The magazine was used by Jónas and his fellow Fjölnismenn to promote Icelandic nationalism, in the hope of giving impetus to the Icelandic Independence Movement. Jónas remains one of Iceland's most beloved poets, penning some of the best-known Icelandic poems about Iceland and its people. Since 1996, Jónas's birthday has been officially recognised in Iceland as the Day of the Icelandic Language. On 16 November each year, the Jónas Hallgrímsson Award is awarded to an individual for their outstanding contribution to the Icelandic Language.
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Brian Mikkelsen
- Occupations
- directorpolitical scientistpolitician
- Biography
-
Brian Arthur Mikkelsen is the CEO of the Danish Chamber of Commerce. He is a former Minister and member of the Conservative People's Party, and was a member of the Danish Parliament (Folketinget) from 21 September 1994 to 21 June 2018.
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Per Stig Møller
- Occupations
- diplomatbiographerpolitician
- Biography
-
Per Stig Møller is a Danish politician. He was a member of the Folketing (Danish national parliament) for the Conservative People's Party from 1984 until 2015, and was Minister for the Environment from 18 December 1990 to 24 January 1993 as part of the Cabinet of Poul Schlüter IV and Foreign Minister from 27 November 2001 to 23 February 2010 as part of the Cabinet of Anders Fogh Rasmussen I, II and III, and the first Cabinet of Lars Løkke Rasmussen. From 23 February 2010 to 3 October 2011 he was Minister for Culture.
