Søren Brunak

Current positions
2015–:

Senior Medical Informatics Officer, Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark

2007–:

Professor of Disease Systems Biology, CPR, University of Copenhagen

Previous positions

1999–2021:

Professor of Bioinformatics, Department of Systems Biology, Technical University of Denmark

1997–1998:

Associate professor, Department of Biotechnology, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

1993–2015:

Center director, Center for Biological Sequence Analysis, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark (1993–1997 at the Department of Chemistry)

1990–1993:

Senior researcher, Department of Physics, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

1987–1990:

Research associate, Department of Structural Properties of Materials, Technical University of Denmark, Kongens Lyngby, Denmark

1982–1984:

Administrative head, Andersen & Simonsen I/S, Ulfborg, Denmark

Education

2002:

Dr.phil. (honoris causa), Natural Science Faculty, Stockholm University, Sweden

1991:

PhD in Computational Biology, Department of Structural Properties of Materials, Technical University of Denmark

1987:

MSc in Physics, Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Research awards

2019:

The Nordic Prize from the Eric K. Fernström Foundation

2019:

The Kirsten and Freddy Johansens Medical Preclinical prize

2017:

Honorary Award of the University Hospital of Zealand 2017, awarded to a pioneer who has broken conventions and created new paths through one’s work  

2016:

Senior Scientist Award, International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB)

2016–:

Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences

2013:     

Julius Thomsen’s Gold Medal awarded by Technical University of Denmark

2012:

The Order of Dannebrog, Danish Royal Order of Chivalry

2011–:   

Chair of the Interim ELIXIR Board

2011–:   

ISCB Fellow

2009–:   

Member of EMBO

2009:

Grundfos Prize 2009 for crucial and ground-breaking research within systems biology and bioinformatics

2007–2010:

Chair of the Awards Committee of the International Society for Computational Biology

2006:

Villum Kann Rasmussen Prize for Research within the Natural and Technical Sciences

2004–:   

Member: Danish Royal Society of Science and Letters

2002:     

Dir. Ib Henriksens Prize for Outstanding Science Achievement

2001–:

Member of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences

2001–2004: 

Board of directors, International Society for Computational Biology

1998: 

Bjerrum-Brønsted-Lang Award from the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.

Title of lecture: Protein structure prediction by artificial neural networks

Søren Brunak is a leading pioneer in the biomedical sciences through invention and introduction of new computational strategies for analysis of biomedical data for use in molecular biology, medicine and biotechnology. His main achievements can be divided into two categories: 1) new, advanced bioinformatics and systems biology techniques, and 2) discovery of biological mechanisms, revealed by the use of these methods in a wide range of biological systems.

Søren Brunak has been working within bioinformatics and computational biology since mid-1980s. In the early data-poor period Søren Brunak pioneered the introduction of new computational strategies for analysis of biological data of relevance in molecular biology, medicine and biotechnology – in particular machine learning techniques. In 1993 Søren Brunak became the founding Director of the Center for Biological Sequence Analysis (CBS) at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU), heading a multi-disciplinary research group of molecular biologists, biochemists, medical doctors, physicists, and computer scientists.

In 2007 Søren Brunak became one of the founding research directors at the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Protein Research at the University of Copenhagen. His program for Disease Systems Biology combines molecular level systems biology and the analysis of phenotypic data from the healthcare sector. In 2011 Søren Brunak was also one of the founders of the Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Biosustainability at DTU, where he led the Section for Metagenomic Systems Biology until 2013. He continues to be affiliated professor at DTU (DTU Bioinformatics) as well as at Copenhagen University Hospital (Rigshospitalet).

The impact of Brunak’s research is in particular a consequence of his ability to combine scientific disciplines in novel ways, including computer technology (hardware and software), physics, biology, biomedical and biotechnological insights. His multi-disciplinary approaches, where concepts from different areas have been combined, have led to advances in the understanding of the function of biological systems, and thereby fundamentally improved the possibilities for control of disease via novel intervention strategies, and enhancement of health in general. Søren Brunak has been a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences since 2016, a member of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters since 2004 and a member of the European Molecular Biology Organization since 2009.

Søren Brunak has published close to 300 papers in international peer reviewed scientific journals (excluding proceedings), co-authored four books, three proceedings and edited books.