Dr Raaschou-Nielsen heads the Work, Environment and Cancer research group at the Danish Cancer Society Research Centre. The group employs eight researchers, who conduct research into environmental impacts and health. Dr Raaschou-Nielsen carries out epidemiological research in which determining the exposure of participants to environmental factors is combined with data from the unique Danish population and health registers.

Dr Raaschou-Nielsen has carried out health research in relation to exposure to air pollution, noise, radon, electromagnetic fields, fluorinated compounds such as PFOA and PFOS, cadmium, trichlorethylene and persistent chlorinated organic compounds such as DDT. He has an extensive national and international network with environmental and health researchers.

Strengthening beneficial collaboration

Dr Raaschou-Nielsen’s collaboration with researchers at the Department of Environmental Science extends back over twenty years. This collaboration has mainly been concerned with studies of air pollution and noise, but has also included studies of DDT in the indoor environment. The collaboration has so far resulted in forty-one scientific articles, as well as a number of reports for the Danish Environmental Protection Agency.

Appointing Dr Raaschou-Nielsen as an honorary professor will help maintain and build up the scientific collaboration between two productive research environments that complement each other in a beneficial way. Aarhus University can contribute with highly qualified determination of exposure to air pollution, which complements Dr Raaschou-Nielsen’s epidemiological qualifications. On the other hand, Dr Raaschou-Nielsen can ensure that Aarhus University’s environmental research can be put into perspective by being used in health research. The collaboration is expected to include joint research applications, publications and PhD students.

Ole Raaschou-Nielsen (born 1959) graduated with an MSc from Roskilde University (RUC) in 1990. He began work at the Danish Cancer Society in 1993 and completed a PhD in Cancer Epidemiology at the University of Copenhagen in 1998. Dr Raaschou-Nielsen has published more than 150 scientific articles in international journals. He lives in the suburb of Sankt Jørgensbjerg in Roskilde.

What is an honorary professor?

The term honorary professor is adjungeret professor in Danish, and adjungeret means ‘connected with’. It is an honorary title conferred in acknowledgement of a person’s special efforts in the disciplines associated with a university department’s academic initiatives. The title is conferred on researchers with whom the university wishes to maintain ties or create a closer affiliation. The aim of conferring the title honorary professor is to maintain and further develop a special academic fellowship with top researchers, where the collaboration has shown to be particularly rewarding, and where an affiliation can further contribute to strengthening the collaboration.

For more information, please contact

Honorary Professor and Head of Group Ole Raaschou-Nielsen
Research Centre
Danish Cancer Society
+45 3525 7617
ole@cancer.dk