DTU has appointed Bjarke Bak Christensen, MSc Eng, PhD as the new head of DTU Bioengineering. He leaves a position as head of the Department of Food Science at the University of Copenhagen Faculty of Life Sciences.
"Bjarke Bak Christensen is an experienced department head who has successfully demonstrated he is capable of running an organization like the one he will be responsible for here at DTU. He is a visionary person with a strong drive—essential qualities in the job he is taking on. I look forward to working with him," says DTU President, Anders Bjarklev.
Bjarke Bak Christensen is excited about his new job:
"I’m looking forward to returning to DTU and working in a field which will be key to the future development of the biotech industry and life sciences in general. "
Bjarke Bak Christensen, Head of Department, DTU Bioengineering
"I’m looking forward to returning to DTU and working in a field which will be key to the future development of the biotech industry and life sciences in general. I already know many of my colleagues at the department and in neighbouring departments, and I look forward to working with them and with small and large biotech companies on research and education," he says.
Bjarke Bak Christensen received a Master of Science in Engineering (MSc Eng) degree from DTU in 1990, and started a PhD at the Department of Microbiology four years later. After completing his postdoc in 1999, he worked as a senior researcher for the Danish Veterinary and Food Administration, and from 2004 as Head of Section for Denmark’s Food and Veterinary Research centre, which became DTU Food in 2007.
From 2008, he served as Research Manager in the Department of Microbiology and Risk Assessment, DTU Food, and was appointed Head of Department at the University of Copenhagen in 2011.
Bjarke Bak Christensen's new workplace is a new DTU department which arose after DTU Systems Biology split into two departments: DTU Bioengineering and DTU Bioinformatics.
DTU Bioengineering works with social and scientific challenges within biotechnology, biomedicine, food technology and human health. The department engages in both basic research and applied research and employs a number of simple tools from biochemistry, biophysics, chemistry, cell biology, immunology, microbial ecology and physiology, bioinformatics, and bioengineering.