Five AU students receive Queen Margrethe II Travel Grant of DKK 25,000

Five students, described as particularly talented, will receive Queen Margrethe II Travel Grant this year. The grant will provide each of them with DKK 25,000 to explore their fields of interest. The grant is intended to enable the students to study abroad as part of their degree programmes at AU. 

In keeping with tradition, the travel grants are awarded to one student from each of AU's five faculties. At Aarhus BSS and Arts, it’s a given that students study political science and archaeology, respectively. This is because these were the subjects Queen Margrethe herself studied during her time at AU in 1961-1962.

This year, the honour goes to Jakob Bach Jensen, a Master’s degree student in archaeology (Arts), Alexander Bjerremann Petersen, Master's degree student in political science (Aarhus BSS), Maria Lorentsen, Master's degree student in public health science (Health), Frida Brøndgaard Nielsen, Master's degree student in biology (Nat), and Anton Niewald Mikkelsen, Master's degree student in civil and architectural engineering (Tech). In other words, one student from each of AU's five faculties. 

The students will receive their grant at the university’s annual celebration in the Main Hall on 12 September. 

The travel grant was established in 2010 as a present to HM Queen Margrethe on the occasion of her 70th birthday.  

The five students

In his Bachelor’s project, Jakob investigated the tanged arrowheads of the Pitted Ware culture, a distinctive type of arrowhead from the period 2800-2600 BCE. The grant will give him the opportunity, for instance through fieldwork and archival studies, to explore the subject in greater depth in an international context. 

Alexander Bjerremann Petersen from political science wrote his Bachelor's project on game theory, in which he examined the connection between the size of the welfare state and social trust. Game theory is an analytical method for understanding how political actors make decisions in situations where their choices depend on the actions of others. The grant will enable him to spend a term at University College London.

Maria Lorentsen from public health science wrote her Bachelor's project on the link between diet and cancer, and the travel grant will support her study trip to the French city of Lyon. Here, she will be an intern at the International Agency for Research on Cancer – one of the world's leading institutions in cancer research.

Frida Brøndgaard Nielsen from biology will use the grant to travel to South Africa’s administrative capital, Pretoria. Here, she will participate in an interdisciplinary research project aimed at restoring urban nature on the outskirts of the city, where pollution, erosion and flooding are a problem.

Anton Niewald Mikkelsen from the civil and architectural engineering wants to make the construction industry more sustainable. In his Bachelor's project, he investigated how uncertain data can affect the results of climate calculations. The grant will enable him to study abroad at the University of British Columbia in Canada. 

Read more about the five recipients of Queen Margrethe II Travel Grant on AU's website here.