Jens-Jørgen Gaardhøje and Dorthe Dahl-Jensen receive French Order of Chivalry

Two professors at the Niels Bohr Institute, Jens-Jørgen Gaardhøje and Dorthe Dahl-Jensen have been awarded the prestigious French Order of Chivalry, Chevalier des Palmes Académiques.

L'ordre des palmes académiques was originally a decoration established in 1808 by Emperor Napoleon to honour eminent members of the University of Paris. In 1866, the order was expanded to include those who had made major contributions to French education and culture, including foreigners. 

Dorthe Dahl-Jensen has been awarded the Order of Chivalry for her climate research and her many years of collaboration with French laboratories.

Dorthe Dahl-Jensen

Dorthe Dahl-Jensen is a professor of glaciology and leader of the Centre for Ice and Climate research group at the Niels Bohr Institute. She also heads the international project to drill ice cores through the three kilometer thick Greenland ice sheet, which can tell us about the climate going back more than 128,000 years in time.

Dorthe Dahl-Jensen has been awarded the Order of Chivalry for her many years of collaboration with French laboratories that are involved in climate research, particularly with the Laboratoire de Glaciologie et Géophysique de l’Environnement, CEA and Institut Pierre-Simon Laplace.

She is a member of several scientific committees, including Institut Polaire Français Paul-Emile Victor in France. She is also the programme coordinator for the project, 'Past4Future', which is part of the EU’s 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development.

Jens Jørgen Gaardhøje

Jens Jørgen Gaardhøje has been award the French Order of Chivalry for his research in nuclear physics and for his extended and close collaboration with numerous French research institutions.

Jens Jørgen Gaardhøje is a professor and head of the Experimental Particle Physics research group, ALICE at the Niels Bohr Institute and co-PI of the Discovery Center of Excellence. The research takes place at CERN, the European organization for particle research in Geneva, Switzerland.

The group studies the fundamental physical forces of the universe by colliding nuclei at extreme energies in the LHC accelerator. The focus is on the exploration of the strong interaction and the Quark Gluon Plasma, a super dense and hot state of matter consisting of the fundamental building blocks of nature, quarks which are bound by gluons.

Jens Jørgen Gaardhøje has been award the French Order of Chivalry for his research in nuclear physics at all energy scales and for his extended and close collaboration with numerous French research institutions. He has for more than 25 years worked with French research institutions and has held administrative and advisory posts within French research and at several French national laboratories, including Grenoble, Nantes, Paris and Caen.

At the reception at the French Embassy is seen Professor Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, Professor Jens-Jørgen Gaardhøje, head of the Niels Bohr Institute, Robert Feidenhans'l and the French ambassador, Véronique Bujon-Barré.

He has also been a member of several PhD evaluation committees in France (Orsay, Lyon, Nantes) and has also been the principal supervisor for several young French PhD and postdocs at the Niels Bohr Institute.

The two professors will receive their orders of chivalry today at a reception at the French Embassy in Copenhagen.