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November 20 2008

UniSA Vice Chancellor honoured in Denmark

Vice Chancellor Professor Peter Høj honoured by the University of Copenhagen In a prestigious international ceremony, University of South Australia Vice Chancellor and President, Professor Peter Høj, has been honoured by the University of Copenhagen and personally congratulated by Queen Margrethe II of Denmark in the capital today, November 20 2008.

Prof Høj was made an Honorary Doctor of Science, in the Faculty of Life Sciences at the University of Copenhagen in honour of his own research career in plant biochemistry and his important contribution to building research communities in Australia and internationally.

The award was recommended by the University's Department of Plant Biology and Biotechnology from which Prof Høj graduated with a PhD in 1987. The citation was presented by Dean Per Holten-Andersen.

In the citation Prof Høj was described as a "brilliant biochemist, [who] from the very start of his career ...published papers in top ranking journals".

A testament to his high achievements in research, it was also noted that before the age of 40, he had published several patents, 86 refereed papers and had been cited more than 2500 times. He was also awarded the Boehringger Mannheim Medal by the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in 1992 for his significant contribution to biochemical research.

His move to Australia saw Prof Høj take on significant roles in both the academic and research community - as Australia's first Professor of Viticulture at the University of Adelaide and then CEO of the Australian Wine Research Institute, where he played a strong role in spearheading the development of the Australian wine industry in the international arena.

At just 42, he was appointed one of only four private members of the Prime Minister's Science, Engineering and Innovation Council, the youngest member of this group, which was chaired by the then Prime Minister John Howard.

He was appointed as CEO of the most important research funding body in Australia, the Australian Research Council in 2004. Prof Høj became Vice Chancellor of UniSA in 2007.

He is now one of two UniSA staff to have received this high honour from the University of Copenhagen. UniSA Professor and Research Chair in Epidemiology, John Lynch was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Medical Science from the University of Copenhagen in 2007.

The University of Copenhagen (Københavns Universitet) is the oldest and largest university and research institution in Denmark with more than 37,000 students and 7000 employees. The honorary awards are part of an annual day of celebrations marking the foundation of the University in 1479.

Professor Høj is one of only six international award recipients including Honorary Doctor of Law - Professor Emeritus Frances Raday, Faculty of Law, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel; Honorary Doctor of Sociology - Professor Emeritus Thomas J Scheff, Department of Sociology, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA; Honorary Doctors of Medicine - Professor Anne-Lise Børresen-Dale, Institute for Cancer Research, Norwegian Radium Hospital, Norway, Professor C. Ronald Kahn, Joslin Diabetes Center, Boston, USA, and Professor Jayaprakash Muliyil, Christian Medical College & Hospital, Vellore, India.

Today the University of Copenhagen is a multi-campus institution, offering courses in Danish, English and German. The University is a member of the International Alliance of Research Universities (IARU) along with the Universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Yale, UC Berkeley and ANU and is recognised as the leading university in Scandinavia and one of Europe’s leading research institutions.

See article in 'pleasure.dk gourmet' about Professor Peter Høj's award (article is in Danish).
 

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