Anne Simonsen awarded the University of Oslo Research Prize

Each year, the University of Oslo (UiO) honors outstanding achievements when the University Board presents awards for research, education, dissemination and innovation.

This year, Anne Simonsen will be awarded the Research Prize for her groundbreaking studies of autophagy. Through her research, Simonsen has played a key role in demonstrating that reduced autophagy is an important factor in ageing, as well as in neurodegenerative diseases and cancer. We congratulate Anne Simonsen on this well-deserved recognition. She will receive the Research Prize during UiO’s Annual Celebration in September.

Anne Simonsen. Photo: Lars Ankervold, UiO

 
In its justification for the award, UiO writes: “Professor Anne Simonsen is awarded the Research Prize for her groundbreaking work on autophagy, the cells’ own system for waste removal and recycling. She explores major questions related to the inner life of cells, such as how cells protect themselves against harmful proteins and how failure in these processes contributes to ageing, cancer and neurodegenerative diseases. Among other things, her research has shown that increased autophagy can lead to dramatically increased lifespan, while failure in the process can result in Parkinson’s-like symptoms. Simonsen is a leading figure in her field and is at the very forefront internationally”.

Anne Simonsen is very thankful to receive this recognition and says “I am proud of the work my research group and I have done. This is not an award one wins alone; it is the result of teamwork over many years. It also means a lot that the university chooses to recognize basic research with this prize.”

Simonsen is a molecular biologist and has worked on autophagy since 1999. She has built up a large and well-functioning research group which, since 2023, has been based at the Institute for Cancer Research, OUS. Simonsen is also Adjunct Professor at the Institute of Clinical Medicine, UiO, and Deputy Director of the Centre for Cancer Cell Reprogramming, CanCell, a Centre of Excellence. Since 2005, she has been the main supervisor for 14 PhD candidates, of whom 12 have graduated, as well as 4 master’s students and 14 postdoctoral fellows. Simonsen’s international recognition is clearly reflected in her frequent invitations as a speaker at high-level international conferences and in her participation in several international collaborative projects, including an ITN project under Horizon 2020 as a coordinator. She has also received several major national research grants, including a prestigious Toppforsk grant.

The annual awards are linked to the university’s four core activities and serve both as a recognition of exceptional achievements and as an inspiration to other academic communities at the university. According to the statutes, recipients of the Research Prize must have distinguished themselves through excellent research, be nationally leading in their field, and have research that is recognized by leading international academic communities. The prize of NOK 250,000 must be used for research activities or other measures that strengthen the recipient’s research environment, in accordance with the prizewinner’s wishes.

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