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Thomas Bolander Gets the H.C. Ørsted medal for Excellent research dissemination

Thomas Bolander Gets the H.C. Ørsted medal for Excellent research dissemination

The Executive Board of the company for the spread of Nature has decided to award the H.C. Ørsted Medal for excellent research dissemination to civil engineer, associate professor, PhD. Thomas Bolander, DTU. The ceremony will take place on Monday, 16 September 2019 KL. 19:30 in Auditorium 1 of the H.C. Ørsted Building, University Park 5, 2100 København Ø.

The award is a recognition of Thomas Bolander's unique ability to convey both his own special area – artificial intelligence – as well as much broader sections of the mathematical base for modern engineering achievements.

About Thomas Bolander's mediation

Thomas Bolander is a very special-class intermediary. He researches in artificial intelligence (AI), on the boundary between logic, mathematics and computer science. He is passionate about both research and the dissemination of his subjects. He has received DTUs's award as the Teacher of the Year and he also teaches DTUs's training for managers and specialists who will use AI in business development. At the same time, he is active in the Math Center Homework Aid Initiative, which provides free homework assistance to schoolchildren across Denmark.

For more than 10 years he has held great public lectures on AI in many contexts and forums. A few examples are the people's meeting on Bornholm, TechFestival, Science & Cocktails, BLOOM, the Scientific Association of Youth (UNF) and the Society of the naturalist's distribution. 

At Forskerzonen.dk he writes lyrics, makes podcasts and videos, and he is in the SIRI and TechDK commissions, both of which create debate on the use of AI in Denmark. In total, it has become 105 public lectures or debates in the last 5 years.

About Thomas Bolander's research

His ability to cross disciplines also proves both scientifically and in his communication. He is the "core staff" of a Semper Army Research centre funded by the Carlsberg Foundation, headed by the humanist Vincent Hendricks, and he has created a new research branch in AI, epistemic planning, which is about getting AI systems to take account To other actors in their planning and thereby achieve social intelligence.

His research humanist interface also means that, in his communication, he is uniquely able to present both the technical and ethical aspects of artificial intelligence and thus provide the basis for a meaningful debate among many different Actors – politicians, business people and ordinary citizens of society. This makes his dissemination particularly relevant to all age groups and many professions. 

About the ceremony

Thomas Bolander's great and fruitful efforts as both researcher and facilitator make him an obvious recipient of the H.C. Ørsted Medal for excellent research dissemination.

The H.C. Ørsted Medal for excellent research dissemination was most recently awarded 3 years ago to astrophysicist Professor Anja Cetti Andersen, after a break of 16 years. Before it was the latest dispensation in the year 2000 to Jens Martin Knudsen and the year before in 1999 to Ove Nathan. 

In connection with the medal ceremony, Thomas Bolander holds a lecture titled: Socially Intelligent Robots – and he will be assisted by the robot R2DTU.

Registration for the event is necessary. 

Send an email to snu@naturvidenskab.net as soon as possible and no later than 12 September 2019, or call on phone 21 26 03 50. 

Seats are allocated according to a first-to-mill principle, with the result that a certain number of seats are reserved for SNUs members in advance. Registrations will be confirmed on an ongoing basis.