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New head of the Department of Agroecology

From 1 March 2020, Jørgen E. Olesen will officially take over as department head at the Department of Agroecology. He has been the acting head of department since September 2019.

Professor Jørgen E. Olesen is to continue as head of the Department of Agroecology and move from being acting head of department to head of department. He has been employed on a limited tenure of six years.

Dean Eskild Holm Nielsen is pleased to welcome Jørgen E. Olesen as a permanent member of the faculty management team at the Faculty of Technical Sciences:

"Jørgen E. Olesen took over management of Department of Agroecology at a very difficult time. He has confidently steered the department through some very rough seas, and now the department is ready to meet the future with him at the helm. I look forward to our continued collaboration, and I believe that he is the right person to head the department so that it continues to be an active player in the new faculty and in the faculty's new strategic direction," says Eskild Holm Nielsen.

Professor Jørgen E. Olesen is one of Denmark's most highly acclaimed climate researchers. Throughout his career, he has been concerned with the interplay between agriculture and climate, and in particular how climate change is managed.

Jørgen E. Olesen started his career at the Statens Planteavlsforsøg in 1983 on agricultural meteorology, and in 1991 he became head of a multidisciplinary project concerning winter wheat. This gave him a broad background on research into the importance of climate in plant breeding. Since then, climate change has filled more and more in his research and teaching, and he is one of the most recognized researchers in climate and agriculture in Europe and globally. He has been a member of the UN Climate Panel, the IPCC, and was therefore part of the research team that received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. He is a former member of the Climate Commission, the Natur- og Landbrugskommissionen and the Danish Council on Ethics and present member of several advisory committees on agriculture, climate and sustainability research at both European and Danish levels, including the FACCE Scientific Advisory Board, L & F's Advisory Board and the Government's Climate Partnership for Agriculture and Food.

Read also the news article about Jørgen E. Olesen in connection with his appointment as acting head of department