Annual Award recipient celebrated

24.01.2023 l More news 

On 23 January, VILLUM FONDEN celebrated the recipient of the Villum Kann Rasmussen Annual Award in Science and Technology as well as 22 Villum Young Investigators, as is tradition.

A total of DKK 131 million was distributed among some of the brightest, smartest – and happiest – minds in Denmark, and the event was celebrated with music, song and a celebratory lecture in Den Sorte Diamant (The Royal Danish Library) in Copenhagen.

The recipient of the annual grant, Professor Donald Canfield from the University of Southern Denmark, gave a special presentation at the event, with insight into his research within the origins of the oceans and of life as we know it. Most of us see oxygen as the prerequisite for all life - but in severely oxygen-poor environments, billions of years ago, things actually did happen. For billions of years. This is the activity that Donald Canfield has enlightened the world about. Read more in the large portrait article of the Annual Award recipient.

The award was motivated by Professor Anja Boisen, Technical University of Denmark, and presented by Jens Kann-Rasmussen, Chair of VILLUM FONDEN.

The celebrations on 23 January also included the premiere of a small film about the person and researcher Donald Canfield. Watch it here (6 min.)