Winner of the 2023 Rigmor and Carl Holst-Knudsen Award for Scientific Research
Professor of Psychology Bobby Zachariae
Over the years, both cancer patients and their relatives have benefited from the results of Professor Bobby Zachariae’s research into the psychological and delayed complications of a life-threatening illness. More and more people are able to live with cancer or survive it. However, this can come at a cost such as depression, fear of relapse, pain, sleep problems, fatigue and cognitive difficulties. Bobby Zachariae and his group are conducting research into how we can most effectively prevent and remedy these issues.
Since the 1990s, Bobby Zachariae has been interested in the interplay between psychology and biology, and his early research into the correlation between psychological processes and the immune system made him a pioneer within the research field of psychoneuroimmunology. Through several experiments, he and his research partners were able to demonstrate how psychological techniques such as hypnosis and visualisation can affect the immune system.
This research led to Bobby Zachariae obtaining a higher doctoral degree in medicine in 1996 with his dissertation "Psychological Modulation of Immunological and Inflammatory Parameters”.
In 1999, Bobby Zachariae received a grant from the Danish Cancer Society and established a psychooncological research unit at the cancer department at the former Aarhus Municipality Hospital. The unit became permanent in 2011 and was renamed the Unit for Psycho-Oncology and Health Psychology (EPoS) in collaboration between Aarhus University and Aarhus University Hospital.
