Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II’s Travel Grant to students at Aarhus University

The award was established in 2010 as a present to Her Majesty Queen Margrethe on the occasion of The Queen’s 70th birthday, and widened in 2012 on the occasion of The Queen’s 40th Jubilee. A total of four awards are granted, one to a student at each of the four main academic areas. Two of the awards are always reserved for a student of political science (The School of Business and Social Sciences) and a student of archaeology (The Faculty of Arts), as The Queen studied these subjects as a student at Aarhus University in 1961-62. The award of DKK 25,000 is intended to enable the award winners to spend a study period abroad in connection with their studies at Aarhus University.

Almut Fichte, student of archaeology
Department of Culture and Society
Aarhus University

Almut Fichte graduated as a Bachelor of prehistoric archaeology in the summer of 2014. The outstanding feature of her Bachelor’s project was that it produced new knowledge about the way swords were worn in the Bronze Age. Using organic remains from graves, she has discovered that warriors probably wore their swords at their sides at belt height – whereas previously it was believed that they were worn at the hip. This new knowledge may change our ideas about what swords were used for and how these warriors got around. Wearing your sword at your side at belt height would have made it visible, showing that you were a warrior and making the sword easy to get at if you needed it in battle. It would also have been practical if you were on foot but rather inconvenient if you were on horseback, which may mean that warriors tended to get around on foot rather than riding horses.
Almut Fichte wants to spend her travel grant studying for a semester in the UK, where she can continue to focus on organic material from the Bronze Age.

Chemistry student Mads Bøttger Hansen
Department of Chemistry
Aarhus University

Mads Bøttger Hansen will complete his BSc at the Department of Chemistry in August. He has achieved very high marks throughout his studies, showing unusually high academic and intellectual aptitude. Mads Bøttger Hansen has also made a positive impression on the social level, where he has worked as a tutor and taken part in Aarhus University’s well-known Chemistry Show. In addition, he has acted as a student counsellor, making presentations about student life to upper secondary school pupils. During the first term of his MSc in Chemistry, Mads Bøttger Hansen will spend a five-month study period as an exchange student at the Pierre and Marie Curie University (UPMC) in Paris, an internationally recognised university of science and medicine. His studies here will include courses in theoretical chemistry. During his period abroad, Mads Bøttger Hansen will also carry out project work in connection with the Analytical, Physical and Theoretical Chemistry (CAPT) specialisation at UPMC. He would like to use the knowledge he acquires here in his further studies, hopefully leading to a PhD degree.

Health sciences master’s degree student Mette Lise Lousdal
Department of Public Health
Aarhus University

A health sciences Master’s degree student from Aarhus University has just received HM Queen Margrethe II's Travel Grant. The grant will help to finance a university stay in the USA. In two years’ time she will be reading English textbooks instead Danish. Master’s degree student Mette Lise Lousdal from Aarhus University was presented with HM Queen Margrethe II’s Travel Grant during the university's annual celebration. The travel grant will help her to realise her American dream. "The scholarship is a great helping hand towards realising my dream of studying at Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University in Atlanta," says Mette Lise Lousdal, whose field of research is breast cancer screening. Here she focuses on investigating whether the screening programme results in earlier discovery of the cancer and, subsequently, how the mortality rate changes in relation to different stages of breast cancer development. Mette Lise Lousdal received the travel grant in recognition of her talent and high academic level. She has also been a teacher on the Master's degree programme in nursing and acted as a student teacher for Public Health Science students, who describe Mette Lise Lousdal as being well-structured, pedagogical and a very good teacher. Mette Lise Lousdal expects to spend a year in Atlanta. The stay will form part of her PhD programme and give her a chance to work closer together with her supervisor Professor Timothy Lash, who is employed in the Department of Epidemiology at Emory University.

Student of political science Niels Bjørn Grund Pedersen
Department of Political Science and Government
Aarhus Universitet

Having earned high average marks on both his Bachelor’s and Master’s in Political Science, it is safe to say that Niels Bjørn Grund Pedersen belongs to the group of top university students. He has just completed two years of study abroad at the renowned universities Sciences Po in Paris and the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and even there he earned top marks. During these stays abroad he was also active in the Danish student house in Paris, Fondation Danoise, and he has published several articles in the journal Ræson. He has actively contributed to the department’s student associations, who do very important work towards maintaining the good study environment. He has also been a writer for the department’s magazine Kandestøberen, and he was team leader for the department’s football team. Niels Bjørn Grund Pedersen is a very skilled student assistant, and his work is highly valued by researchers such as Professor Søren Serritzlew and Professor Jens Blom-Hansen in connection with their Sapere Aude project IMPUSE, which aims to explore different ways to reform public services. In the coming semester he will be employed at the department as a student teacher, teaching courses on methodology.