The Carlsberg Foundation Research Prizes 2018 are awarded to two highly acclaimed researchers within the field of social sciences and natural sciences. Professor of financial econometrics at Duke University Tim Bollerslev and professor of structural biology at Aarhus University Poul Nissen.
Professor Tim Bollerslev
Tim Bollerslev receives the prize for his highly recognised research within finance and time-series econometrics. He is particularly recognised for his knowledge in the areas of financial econometrics and empirical finance, in which fields, he belongs to the absolute world elite.
Tim Bollerslev’s research is fundamentally about developing and using new statistical and econometrical methods for analysing financial data for a better understanding of economic mechanisms. More specifically, he has worked on methods for measuring, modelling, and predicting fluctuation in prices, also known as volatility of the financial markets. Volatility comes in waves, which means that financial markets, at times, are relatively calm, while, at other times, are very turbulent.
Tim Bollerslev has also introduced and worked with a new concept called “realized volatility”. There is a large, and quickly growing academic literature dedicated to realized volatility, and the concept is now also used outside the academic world.
Professor Poul Nissen
Professor Poul Nissen is, beyond comparison, the most highly profiled structural biologist of Scandinavia. In 1995, as a PhD student, he already published in Science, on how he had used x-ray crystallography to identify the structure of the protein-RNA-complex which is responsible for placing the amino acids in the correct order on the ribosome, that creates the cell protein. Since then, as a postdoc at Yale University, he became one of the driving forces behind the identification of the structure of exactly the ribosome, which translates genetic information for synthesis of protein in all cells. It was, not least, due to this breakthrough that Yale-professor Tom Steitz received the Nobel Prize in chemistry in 2009.
The Carlsberg Foundation Research Prize
The Carlsberg Foundation Research Prize was instituted in 2011 to mark the bicentenary of the birth of founder J. C. Jacobsen. The objective of the Carlsberg Foundation Research Prize is to support two active researchers, in Denmark or abroad, who have made vital contributions to basic research and enjoy great scientific recognition. The prizes are meant to encourage further research and can be spent, as required, on research stays abroad, field work, equipment or salary for scientific assistance.
The prizes are awarded on the recommendation of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. Each prize amounts to DKK 1 million. From this, DKK 250.000 is a personal gift and DKK 750.000 is for research.