The 2019 Oslo University Hospital Researcher Awards to Andreassen, Kalager and Sveen

Three scientists received awards for their outstanding research at a ceremony taking place at Oslo University Hospital August 23rd. 

The major prize - the "Excellent Researcher Award" - went to Ole A. Andreassen. Mette Kalager and Anita Sveen both received the "Early Career Award".

The prize money - 300.000 and 150.000 NOK respectively - is earmarked for research activities. This prize is distributed anually in order to honour excellent scientific work. The awarding process is organized by the hospital's research committee, while an external Scientific Advisory Board has evaluated the candidates. 

 
About this year's award winners:

Excellent Researcher Award

Ole A. Andreassen:

Ole A. Andreassen is consultant psychiatrist at the Division of Mental Health and Addiction, head of The Norwegian Centre for Mental Disorders Research (NORMENT) and professor at the Institute of Clinical Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, University of Oslo.

Committee statement:
Ole A. Andreassen has a focus in his research on the causes and mechanisms of severe mental and neuropsychiatric disorders. The outcome of the research has contributed to increased understanding of the development and putative treatment of diseases such as schizophrenia, bipolar disorders, eating disorders, autism and ADHD as well as age-related brain disorders including Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Andreassen has been a pioneer in psychiatric molecular psychiatry and has been able to lead the building of large biobanks and databases, making use of Norway's advantages with registers and public health care. He also saw the need for major collaborative projects, and was active in building international studies in psychiatry and neuroscience that have combined materials from many countries to achieve statistical strength. He was early on using modern MRI imaging technology, was involved in establishing the first functional MRI laboratory in Oslo, and has been instrumental in establishing the MRI Core Facility for Neuroimaging. Andreassen has published extensively in highly ranked journals and is currently one of the most cited researchers in Norway. He has a broad experience of supervision of PhD students and postdoctoral researchers, where a large proportion has developed their own scientific career. We are confident that Ole A. Andreassen will continue to be an outstanding contributor to the research at Oslo University Hospital.

Home page at ous-research.no
Home page at UiO

Early Career Awards:

Mette Kalager

Mette Kalager is a researcher at the Department of Transplantation Medicine at the Division of Surgery, Inflammatory Diseases and Transplantation, and professor at the Department of Health Management and Health Economics at the Institute of Health and Society at the University of Oslo.

Committe statement:
Mette Kalager defended her PhD thesis in 2012 at the University of Oslo and is now Professor at the same university, leading the Clinical Effectiveness Research Group that includes more than 20 researchers. She has been a guest researcher at Harvard School of Public Health. The publication list includes papers in top-ranked journals related to the focus research areas, i.e., breast cancer and gastrointestinal cancer risk. Kalager has received a TOPPFORSK grant from the Research Council of Norway, and is expected to have a leading role within cancer research in Oslo, linked to a strong national and international research network.

Home page at UiO

Anita Sveen

Anita Sveen is senior scientist and leader of the Computational Oncology project group leader at the Department of Molecular Oncology at the Institute for Cancer Research at the Division of Cancer Medicine, and associated professor at the Institute for Clinical Medicine at the Faculty of Medicine, UiO.

Committe statement:
Anita Sveen defended her PhD thesis in 2012 at the University of Oslo. She is currently associate professor at the University of Oslo and project group leader within Computational Oncology at the Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital. She has developed extensive knowledge within bioinformatics with a strong cross-disciplinary competence, notably within colorectal cancer. These skills should be of major importance for further development of this research area in Oslo. Sveen has published her findings in highly ranked journals and has established a strong national and international collaborative network. She was recently awarded a Young Research Talent grant from the Research Council of Norway.

Anita Sveen's mini CV and publications

Link:

News article from oslo-universitetssykehus.no, where the award winners answer questions about their current research and how their findings may be of benefit for patients (text in Norwegian):

Priser til fremragende forskere ved Oslo universitetssykehus

Previous award winners: