‘The gold is in the interfaces’ Nanna MacAulay receives LF Scientific Enrichment Prize 2023
Professor Nanna MacAulay
Professor Nanna MacAulay has personality tests at the ready and an eye for diversity when putting together research teams. Her work testifies to the importance of different perspectives, methods, disciplines and personalities in the quest for scientific breakthroughs. The Professor has now been awarded the Lundbeck Foundation’s diversity award – the LF Scientific Enrichment Prize 2023.
Equally at home with centuries-old texts and modern personality tests, Professor Nanna MacAulay from the University of Copenhagen (UCPH) is a neuro-physiologist who embraces the old school and the new – as well as everything in between. When solving a puzzle, she likes to draw on all the available tools, including ‘old’, almost forgotten knowledge – as long as it moves her research along. Science must be enriched by any means possible, and as far as that mission is concerned, diversity is its best driver.
But it must never be just for its own sake.
The road to gold
Nanna MacAulay is no office-bound recluse. She reaches out, connects with people and creates new spaces and relationships that transcend not only human and academic boundaries but also those between institutions, universities, hospitals and industries. She believes that the best ideas and encounters occur at the interfaces between people, practices, cultures, generations, genders, institutions and, above all else, disciplines.
‘The gold is in the interfaces,’ MacAulay explains. ‘We only truly enrich science when we come together and use our differences as inspiration. But it’s not enough to just throw people together and think you’ve cracked the code.’
‘Researchers and team leaders need to make proactive use of the skills, insights and perspectives that surprise us and complement each other. That’s the only way to create an innovative, inclusive and learning research environment. I see this every day in my work at UCPH, where my team all bring different things to the table and the dynamics that arise from these differences are given space. You also have to remember to have fun while doing it.’
Neural connections and networks
Nanna’s keen eye for human differences and academic diversity, combined with a broad outlook and diverse scientific approaches to solving complex physiological questions in neuroscience, has taken her far and wide – including as the frontwoman of a PhD programme and a series of neuro seminars, according to Jan Egebjerg, Director of Research at the Lundbeck Foundation.
‘She bridges the gap between basic research and clinical practice in a unique way, both in her own research and in the networks she facilitates. Nanna has shown the way for many young scientists by creating a strong and diverse research environment that starts to grow when junior and senior researchers combine and create new links that transcend universities, hospitals and industries. She has turned NeuroGrad into a top three PhD programme, and in 2016 launched a popular seminar series that encompasses people from every corner of science, at different levels and from all disciplines,’ Egebjerg says and continues:
‘Just as the brain is complex and evolves throughout our lives, constantly creating new connections between our neurons, good contacts in neuroscience and beyond are crucial in driving progress towards scientific breakthroughs. Those networks need to be diverse in the broadest sense to trigger the right dynamics, new collaborations and knowledge-sharing.’
MacAulay’s own leadership brain is deeply preoccupied with brain fluid. A milestone in her research came when her team identified the specific method of water transport that leads to its formation.
She is also convinced that a question as complex as how brain fluid is deployed – when healthy and not – will only be solved through collaboration between researchers and clinicians with multiple approaches to and perspectives on the subject.
The award will be presented on Tuesday, 27 June 2023, in the Tower at the Panum Institute, University of Copenhagen.
About the award winner
Nanna MacAulay is a professor of molecular neurophysiology who has headed up her own research teams since 2004. In 2019, she was made a professor in the Department of Neuroscience at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences, University of Copenhagen.
In her research, MacAulay seeks to identify aspects of how humans regulate brain fluid. She continues to look for scientific gold in the interfaces between clinical and basic research, from experimental physiology to mathematical modulation and big data, and she does so in collaboration with experts from Denmark and beyond.
A previous recipient of the Elite Research Prize in 2006 and the Sapere Aude Award in 2012, she can now add the LF Scientific Enrichment Prize to her CV.
Why the Scientific Enrichment Prize?
For most science prizes, the primary focus tends to be on research findings. However, the Lundbeck Foundation Scientific Enrichment Prize also celebrates the ability to enrich research through diversity. It is awarded to an individual who takes – or has taken – the lead in promoting diversity as a means of generating important new research results. It recognises those who have enriched research environments by integrating diversity into their leadership.
About the Panel for the Lundbeck Foundation Scientific Enrichment Prize
Every year, three high-profile figures from the academic research community and the business world assess the nominees for the Lundbeck Foundation Scientific Enrichment Prize and identify the recipient of the DKK 100,000 prize.
This year’s panel comprises Marianne Thellersen, Senior Vice President – Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the Technical University of Denmark; Christina Aabo, independent consultant and former Head of R&D at Ørsted; and Thomas Sinkjær, professor at Aalborg University and General Secretary of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters.
