Notable Alumni of University of Copenhagen [Sorted List]

1. Connie Hedegaard

1960-. (aged 66)

journalist politician

Connie Hedegaard Koksbang is a Danish politician and public intellectual. She was European Commissioner for Climate Action in the (second Barroso) European Commission from 10 February 2010 through 31 October 2014.

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2. Jónas Hallgrímsson

1807-1845 (aged 38)

writer poet lawyer journalist

Jónas Hallgrímsson was an Icelandic poet, writer and naturalist. He was one of the founders of the Icelandic journal Fjölnir, which was first published in Copenhagen in 1835. The magazine was used by Jónas and his fellow Fjölnismenn to promote Icelandic nationalism, in the hope of giving impetus to the Icelandic Independence Movement. Jónas remains one of Iceland's most beloved...

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3. Brian Mikkelsen

1966-. (aged 60)

director political scientist politician

Brian Arthur Mikkelsen is the CEO of the Danish Chamber of Commerce. He is a former Minister and member of the Conservative People's Party, and was a member of the Danish Parliament (Folketinget) from 21 September 1994 to 21 June 2018.

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4. Per Stig Møller

1942-. (aged 84)

diplomat biographer politician

Per Stig Møller is a Danish politician. He was a member of the Folketing (Danish national parliament) for the Conservative People's Party from 1984 until 2015, and was Minister for the Environment from 18 December 1990 to 24 January 1993 as part of the Cabinet of Poul Schlüter IV and Foreign Minister from 27 November 2001 to 23 February 2010...

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5. Thomas Bartholin

1616-1680 (aged 64)

physician

Thomas Bartholin was a Danish physician, mathematician, and theologian. He discovered the lymphatic system in humans and advanced the theory of refrigeration anesthesia, being the first to describe it scientifically.

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6. Niels Kaj Jerne

1911-1994 (aged 83)

university teacher immunologist physician

Niels Kaj Jerne, FRS was a Danish immunologist. He shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 with Georges J. F. Köhler and César Milstein "for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies".

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7. Stine Bosse

1960-. (aged 66)

businessperson politician

Christine "Stine" Bosse is a Danish businesswoman and Member of the European Parliament. Bosse led the Moderates's list for the 2024 European election.

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8. Vilhelm Thomsen

1842-1927 (aged 85)

writer Turkologist linguist university teacher

Vilhelm Ludwig Peter Thomsen was a Danish linguist and Turkologist. He successfully deciphered the Turkic Orkhon inscriptions which were discovered during the expedition of Nikolai Yadrintsev in 1889.

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9. Johan Ludvig Heiberg

1854-1928 (aged 74)

classical philologist hellenist university teacher historian of mathematics linguist

Johan Ludvig Heiberg was a Danish philologist and historian. He is best known for his discovery of previously unknown texts in the Archimedes Palimpsest, and for his edition of Euclid's Elements that T. L. Heath translated into English. He also published an edition of Ptolemy's Almagest.

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10. Lykke Friis

1969-. (aged 57)

politician economist

Lykke Friis is a Danish academic official and former politician. She is currently Prorector for Education at the University of Copenhagen, a position she previously held from 2006 to 2009. A member of the party Venstre, Friis served as Minister for Climate and Energy from 2009 to 2011, and Minister for Gender Equality from 2010 to 2011.

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11. Helle Helle

1965-. (aged 61)

writer novelist

Helle Helle is a Danish writer. Basing her stories on episodes in the lives of ordinary people, she gained fame in 2005 with her novel Rødby-Puttgarden. Her books have been translated into 23 languages and are read by a broad audience in Denmark and abroad. She is a recipient of the Lifetime Award from the Danish Arts Foundation.

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12. Astrid Krag

1982-. (aged 44)

politician

Astrid Krag is a Danish politician, who is a member of the Folketing for the Social Democrats political party. She served as the Minister of Social Affairs and the Interior in the Cabinet of Mette Frederiksen. She previously served as Minister of Health and Prevention in the Cabinet of Helle Thorning-Schmidt from October 2011 until January 2014.

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13. Nick Hækkerup

1968-. (aged 58)

politician

Nick Hækkerup is a Danish writer and politician of Social Democrats who has been serving as the Minister of Justice in the Frederiksen Cabinet from 2019 to 2022. He previously served as Minister of Defence, and Minister of Health.

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14. Hans Kramers

1894-1952 (aged 58)

university teacher theoretical physicist physicist

Hendrik Anthony "Hans" Kramers was a Dutch physicist who worked with Niels Bohr to understand how electromagnetic waves interact with matter and made important contributions to quantum mechanics and statistical physics.

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15. Kåre Schultz

1961-. (aged 65)

chief executive officer economist businessperson

Kåre Schultz is a Danish business executive. Was the chief executive officer of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries between September 2017 and December 2022.

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16. Hans Ørberg

1920-2010 (aged 90)

writer grammarian latinist language teacher

Hans Henning Ørberg was a Danish linguist and teacher. He received a master's degree in English, French, and Latin at the University of Copenhagen and taught these languages in many Danish high schools until 1963 and then taught in a Danish Gymnasium until 1988. He was the author of LINGVA LATINA PER SE ILLVSTRATA, a widely used method for learning...

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17. Ásgeir Ásgeirsson

1894-1972 (aged 78)

politician banker

Ásgeir Ásgeirsson was the second president of Iceland; he served from 1952 to 1968. He also served as the prime minister of Iceland from 3 June 1932 to 28 July 1934 for the Progressive Party. Ásgeir is the only person in Iceland to date to serve both as president and prime minister. He was a Freemason and served as grand...

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18. Johannes Fibiger

1867-1928 (aged 61)

pathologist chemist university teacher parasitologist bacteriologist

Johannes Andreas Grib Fibiger was a Danish physician and professor of anatomical pathology at the University of Copenhagen. He was the recipient of the 1926 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his discovery of the Spiroptera carcinoma". He claimed to have shown that the roundworm which he called Spiroptera carcinoma (but is correctly named Gongylonema neoplasticum) could cause stomach...

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19. Hope Jahren

1969-. (aged 57)

geochemist biologist geologist geobiologist

Anne Hope Jahren is an American geochemist and geobiologist at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, known for her work using stable isotope analysis to analyze fossil forests dating to the Eocene. She has won many awards in the field, including the James B. Macelwane Medal of the American Geophysical Union.

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20. Kristján Eldjárn

1916-1982 (aged 66)

anthropologist archaeologist politician curator

Kristján Eldjárn was the third president of Iceland, serving from 1968 to 1980.

21. Peter Brixtofte

1949-2016 (aged 67)

politician editing staff journalist

Peter Brixtofte was a Danish politician who was member of the Danish Parliament (Folketinget) representing Venstre from 1973 to 1977, from 1979 to 1981, during 1983 and from 1990 to 8 February 2005. Brixtofte served as the Tax Minister of Denmark from 19 November 1992 to 24 January 1993. He was also Mayor of Farum, and was criminally convicted for...

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22. Mia Wagner

1977-. (aged 49)

minister chief executive officer lawyer

Mia Therese Wagner is a Danish businesswoman, lawyer and politician. Representing Venstre, she served as Minister for Digitalisation and Equality in the Frederiksen II Cabinet from November to December 2023.

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23. Jón Sigurðsson

1946-2021 (aged 75)

politician

Jón Sigurðsson was the leader of the 19th century Icelandic independence movement.

24. Peter Wilhelm Punk

1801-1880 (aged 79)

botanical collector scientific collector zoologist archaeologist anthropologist

Peter Wilhelm Lund was a Danish-Brazilian paleontologist, zoologist, and archeologist. He spent most of his life working and living in Brazil. He is considered the father of Brazilian paleontology as well as archaeology.

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25. Ditlev Gothard Monrad

1811-1887 (aged 76)

collector diplomat farmer prelate

Ditlev Gothard Monrad was a Danish politician and bishop, and a founding father of Danish constitutional democracy; he also led the country as Council President in its huge defeat during the Second Schleswig War. Later, he became a New Zealand pioneer before returning to Denmark to become a bishop and politician once more.

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26. Karen Melchior

1980-. (aged 46)

diplomat civil servant politician

Karen Melchior is a Danish lawyer and politician, formerly of the Social Liberal Party, who has served as a Member of the European Parliament in 2019–2024.

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27. Sofie Carsten Nielsen

1975-. (aged 51)

politician

Sofie Carsten Nielsen is a Danish politician, who was formerly the leader of the Danish Social Liberal Party from October 2020 to November 2022. In the 2000s, Nielsen began her political career with the European Parliament as a consultant before working for the Ministry of Gender Equality as a deputy minister. After being elected to the Folketing at the 2011...

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28. Johan Fabricius

1745-1808 (aged 63)

lepidopterist biologist arachnologist university teacher carcinologist

Johann Christian Fabricius was a Danish zoologist, specialising in the "Insecta", which at that time included all arthropods: insects, arachnids, crustaceans and others. He was a student of Carl Linnaeus, and is considered one of the most important entomologists of the 18th century, having named nearly 10,000 species of animals, and established the basis for the modern insect classification.

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29. Pia Olsen Dyhr

1971-. (aged 55)

politician

Pia Olsen Dyhr is a Danish politician and leader of The Green Left. She has been a member of the Folketing since the 2007 general election. Dyhr has served as Minister for Trade and Investment and later Minister of Transport in the first Helle Thorning-Schmidt Cabinet. Following her party's resignation from the cabinet, Dyhr was elected as chairwoman of the...

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30. Steen Steensen Blicher

1782-1848 (aged 66)

translator poet priest writer

Steen Steensen Blicher was an author and poet born in Vium near Viborg, Denmark.

31. Sherin Khankan

1974-. (aged 52)

women's rights activist sociologist debater imam politician

Sherin Khankan is Denmark's (and Scandinavia's) first female imam; she founded a women-led mosque in Copenhagen. She is also an activist on Muslim issues including female integration and extremism, and has written numerous texts discussing Islam and politics.

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32. Wilhelm Ludwig Johannsen

1857-1927 (aged 70)

university teacher botanist geneticist

Wilhelm Johannsen was a Danish pharmacist, botanist, plant physiologist, and geneticist. He is best known for coining the terms gene, phenotype and genotype, and for his 1903 "pure line" experiments in genetics.

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33. Rasmus Rask

1787-1832 (aged 45)

philologist historical linguist linguist university teacher

Rasmus Kristian Rask was a Danish linguist and philologist. He wrote several grammars and worked on comparative phonology and morphology. Rask traveled extensively to study languages, first to Iceland, where he wrote the first grammar of Icelandic, and later to Russia, Persia, India, and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Shortly before his death, he was hired as professor of Eastern languages...

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34. Holger Bech Nielsen

1941-. (aged 85)

university teacher theoretical physicist physicist

Holger Bech Nielsen is a Danish theoretical physicist and professor emeritus at the Niels Bohr Institute, at the University of Copenhagen, where he started studying physics in 1961.

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35. Christian Bohr

1855-1911 (aged 56)

biologist university teacher pharmacist physiologist physicist

Christian Harald Lauritz Peter Emil Bohr was a Danish physician, father of the physicist and Nobel laureate Niels Bohr, as well as the mathematician and football player Harald Bohr and grandfather of another physicist and Nobel laureate Aage Bohr. He married Ellen Adler in 1881.

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36. Oskar Klein

1894-1977 (aged 83)

university teacher theoretical physicist physicist

Oskar Benjamin Klein was a Swedish theoretical physicist now best remembered for the Klein-Gordon equation of relativistic quantum mechanics, the Kaluza-Klein theory, a unified field theory of gravitation and electromagnetism, and the Klein-Nishina cross section in quantum electrodynamics.

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37. Peter Naur

1928-2016 (aged 88)

computer scientist astronomer programmer university teacher

Peter Naur was a Danish computer science pioneer and 2005 Turing Award winner. He is best remembered as a contributor, with John Backus, to the Backus–Naur form (BNF) notation used in describing the syntax for most programming languages. He also contributed to creating the language ALGOL 60.

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38. Søren Pind

1969-. (aged 57)

lawyer politician

Søren Pind is a Danish lawyer and former politician. He served as Danish Minister of Justice from 2015 to 2016, and as Minister of Science, Technology, Information and Higher Education from 2016 to May 2018, whereupon he retired from politics.

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39. Aksel V. Johannesen

1972-. (aged 54)

lawyer sports official association football player politician

Aksel Vilhelmsson Johannesen is a Faroese lawyer and politician who has been the Prime Minister of the Faroe Islands since 2022, and from 2015 to 2019. He has been a member of the Løgting since 2011, as a member of the Social Democratic Party. Prior to his tenure as prime minister he was Minister of Health Affairs and Minister of...

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40. Ritt Bjerregaard

1941-2023 (aged 82)

politician

Ritt Bjerregaard was a Danish politician who was a member of the Danish Social Democrats, and was Lord Mayor of Copenhagen from 1 January 2006 to 2010.

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41. Valdemar Poulsen

1869-1942 (aged 73)

technician engineer physicist

Valdemar Poulsen was a Danish engineer and inventor who developed a magnetic wire recorder called the telegraphone in 1898. He also made significant contributions to early radio technology, including the first continuous wave radio transmitter, the Poulsen arc, which was used for a majority of the earliest audio radio transmissions, before being supplanted by the development of vacuum-tube transmitters.

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42. August Krogh

1874-1949 (aged 75)

university teacher pedagogue zoologist physiologist physician

Schack August Steenberg Krogh ForMemRS was a Danish professor at the department of zoophysiology at the University of Copenhagen from 1916 to 1945. He contributed a number of fundamental discoveries within several fields of physiology, and is famous for developing Krogh's principle.

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43. Ole Worm

1588-1654 (aged 66)

physicist prehistorian university teacher naturalist zoologist

Ole Worm, who often went by the Latinized form of his name Olaus Wormius, was a Danish physician, natural historian and antiquary. He was a professor at the University of Copenhagen where he taught Greek, Latin, physics and medicine.

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44. Petter Dass

1647-1707 (aged 60)

Lutheran pastor poet writer

Petter Pettersen Dass was a Lutheran priest and the foremost Norwegian poet of his generation, writing both baroque hymns and topographical poetry.

45. Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil

1977-. (aged 49)

politician organizational worker

Pernille Rosenkrantz-Theil is a Danish politician, who is a member of the Folketing for the Social Democrats political party. From 2019 to 2022, she has served as Minister of Children and Education. She was elected into parliament at the 2011 Danish general election. She had previously been a member of parliament from 2001 to 2007 as a member of the...

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46. Agner Krarup Erlang

1878-1929 (aged 51)

mathematician engineer statistician

Agner Krarup Erlang was a Danish mathematician, statistician and engineer, who invented the fields of traffic engineering and queueing theory.

47. Adam Oehlenschläger

1779-1850 (aged 71)

autobiographer librettist university teacher lyricist poet

Adam Gottlob Oehlenschläger was a Danish poet and playwright. He introduced romanticism into Danish literature. He wrote the lyrics to the song Der er et yndigt land, which is one of the national anthems of Denmark.

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48. Gøsta Esping-Andersen

1947-. (aged 79)

economist political scientist sociologist university teacher

Gøsta Esping-Andersen is a Danish sociologist whose primary focus has been on the welfare state and its place in capitalist economies. Jacob Hacker describes him as the "dean of welfare state scholars". Over the past decade his research has moved towards family demographic issues. A synthesis of his work was published as Families in the 21st Century (Stockholm, SNS, 2016).

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49. Otto Jespersen

1860-1943 (aged 83)

university teacher pedagogue autobiographer writer scholar of English

Jens Otto Harry Jespersen was a Danish linguist who worked in foreign-language pedagogy, historical phonetics, and other areas, but is best known for his description of the grammar of the English language. Steven Mithen describes him as "one of the greatest language scholars of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries."

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50. Sveinn Björnsson

1881-1952 (aged 71)

lawyer politician

Sveinn Björnsson was the first president of Iceland, serving from 1944 to 1952.

51. Pernille Skipper

1984-. (aged 42)

politician

Pernille Skipper is a Danish former politician. She was a member of the Folketing from 2011 to 2022, and was political spokesperson for the Red–Green Alliance from 2016 to 2021, succeeding Johanne Schmidt-Nielsen. In 2021 she was replaced by Mai Villadsen.

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52. Harald Bohr

1887-1951 (aged 64)

mathematician pedagogue university teacher association football player

Harald August Bohr was a Danish mathematician and footballer. After receiving his doctorate in 1910, Bohr became an eminent mathematician, founding the field of almost periodic functions. His brother was the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Niels Bohr. He was on the Denmark national team for the 1908 Summer Olympics, where he won a silver medal.

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53. Ester Boserup

1910-1999 (aged 89)

writer economist

Ester Boserup was a Danish economist. She studied economic and agricultural development, worked at the United Nations as well as other international organizations, and wrote seminal books on agrarian change and the role of women in development.

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54. Eske Willerslev

1971-. (aged 55)

university teacher biologist

Eske Willerslev is a Danish evolutionary geneticist notable for his pioneering work in molecular anthropology, palaeontology and ecology. He currently holds the Prince Philip Professorship in Ecology and Evolution at University of Cambridge, UK and the Lundbeck Foundation Professorship in Evolution at Copenhagen University, Denmark. He is director of the Centre of Excellence in GeoGenetics, a research associate at the...

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55. Jens Peter Jacobsen

1847-1885 (aged 38)

novelist writer translator botanist poet

Jens Peter Jacobsen was a Danish novelist, poet, and scientist, in Denmark often just written as "J. P. Jacobsen". He began the naturalist movement in Danish literature and was a part of the Modern Breakthrough.

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56. Mogens Lykketoft

1946-. (aged 80)

diplomat politician

Mogens Lykketoft is a Danish politician who served as Leader of the Social Democrats (Socialdemokraterne) from 2002 to 2005.

57. Georg Brandes

1842-1927 (aged 85)

autobiographer university teacher journalist literary historian literary critic

Georg Morris Cohen Brandes was a Danish critic and scholar who greatly influenced Scandinavian and European literature from the 1870s through the turn of the 20th century. He is seen as the theorist behind the "Modern Breakthrough" of Scandinavian culture. At the age of 30, Brandes formulated the principles of a new realism and naturalism, condemning hyper-aesthetic writing and also...

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58. Nella Larsen

1891-1964 (aged 73)

writer novelist nurse librarian

Nellallitea "Nella" Larsen was an American novelist. Working as a nurse and a librarian, she published two novels, Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929), and a few short stories. Though her literary output was scant, she earned recognition by her contemporaries.

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59. Ida Auken

1978-. (aged 48)

theologian priest politician

Ida Margrete Meier Auken is a Danish politician and member of the Folketing for the Social Democrats political party. She has been a member of parliament since 2007. She was Minister for the Environment of Denmark from 2011 to 2014. Until 2014 she was a member of the Socialist People's Party, after which she moved to the Danish Social Liberal...

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60. Ole Nydahl

1941-. (aged 85)

yogi teacher writer

Ole Nydahl, also known as Lama Ole, is a lama providing Mahamudra teachings in the Karma Kagyu school of Tibetan Buddhism. Since the early 1970s, Nydahl has toured the world giving lectures and meditation courses. With his wife, Hannah Nydahl (1946-2007), he founded Diamond Way Buddhism, a worldwide Karma Kagyu Buddhist organization with over 600 centers for lay practitioners.

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61. Peter Høeg

1957-. (aged 69)

writer

Peter Høeg is a Danish writer of fiction. He is best known for his novel Miss Smilla's Feeling for Snow (1992).

62. Morten Messerschmidt

1980-. (aged 46)

politician

Morten Messerschmidt is a Danish politician and since 2022 leader of the Danish People's Party. He was an elected Member of the Folketing at the 2019 Danish general election having previously served from 2005 to 2009. At the 2014 European Parliament election, he was elected a Member of the European Parliament for Denmark with 465,758; the highest number of personal...

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63. Johannes V. Jensen

1873-1950 (aged 77)

correspondent columnist writer translator-interpreter essayist

Johannes Vilhelm Jensen was a Danish author, known as one of the great Danish writers of the first half of 20th century. He was awarded the 1944 Nobel Prize in Literature "for the rare strength and fertility of his poetic imagination with which is combined an intellectual curiosity of wide scope and a bold, freshly creative style". One of his...

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64. Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted

1879-1947 (aged 68)

university teacher chemist physicist

Johannes Nicolaus Brønsted was a Danish physical chemist who is best known for developing the Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory; he developed the theory at the same time as (but independently of) Martin Lowry.

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65. Kaj Munk

1898-1944 (aged 46)

screenwriter theologian playwright Lutheran pastor poet

Kaj Harald Leininger Munk was a Danish playwright and Lutheran pastor, known for his cultural engagement and his martyrdom during the Occupation of Denmark of World War II. He is commemorated as a martyr in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church on 14 August, alongside Maximilian Kolbe.

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66. Niels Ryberg Finsen

1860-1904 (aged 44)

university teacher scientist physician

Niels Ryberg Finsen was a physician and scientist. In 1903, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine and Physiology "in recognition of his contribution to the treatment of diseases, especially lupus vulgaris, with concentrated light radiation, whereby he has opened a new avenue for medical science."

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67. Hans Egede

1686-1758 (aged 72)

explorer missionary pastor translator linguist

Hans Poulsen Egede was a Norwegian Lutheran priest and missionary who launched mission efforts to Greenland, which led him to be styled the Apostle of Greenland. He established a successful mission among the Inuit and is credited with revitalizing Danish-Norwegian interest in the island after contact had been broken for about 300 years. He founded Greenland's capital Godthåb, now known...

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68. Inge Lehmann

1888-1993 (aged 105)

geologist surveyor geophysicist seismologist naturalist

Inge Lehmann was a Danish seismologist and geophysicist who is known for her discovery in 1936 of the solid inner core that exists within the molten outer core of the Earth. She also discovered the seismic discontinuity in the speed of seismic waves at depths between 190 and 250 km, which is named the Lehmann discontinuity after her. Lehmann is...

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69. Aage Bohr

1922-2009 (aged 87)

nuclear physicist pedagogue physicist

Aage Niels Bohr was a Danish nuclear physicist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1975 with Ben Roy Mottelson and James Rainwater "for the discovery of the connection between collective motion and particle motion in atomic nuclei and the development of the theory of the structure of the atomic nucleus based on this connection". His father was Niels...

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70. Ole Rømer

1644-1710 (aged 66)

physicist police officer university teacher mathematician judge

Ole Christensen Rømer was a Danish astronomer who, in 1676, first demonstrated that light travels at a finite speed. Rømer also invented the modern thermometer showing the temperature between two fixed points, namely the points at which water boils and freezes.

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71. Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen

1868-1939 (aged 71)

chemist

Søren Peter Lauritz Sørensen was a Danish chemist, known for the introduction of the concept of pH, a scale for measuring acidity and alkalinity.

72. Ludvig Holberg

1684-1754 (aged 70)

university teacher historian writer essayist autobiographer

Ludvig Holberg, Baron of Holberg was a writer, essayist, philosopher, historian and playwright born in Bergen, Norway, during the time of the Dano–Norwegian dual monarchy. He was influenced by Humanism, the Enlightenment and the Baroque. Holberg is considered the founder of modern Danish and Norwegian literature. He was also a prominent Neo-Latin author, known across Europe for his writing. He...

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73. Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig

1783-1872 (aged 89)

hymnwriter historian philologist philosopher poet

Nikolaj Frederik Severin Grundtvig, most often referred to as N. F. S. Grundtvig, was a Danish pastor, author, poet, philosopher, historian, teacher and politician. He was one of the most influential people in Danish history, as his philosophy gave rise to a new form of nationalism in the last half of the 19th century. It was steeped in the national...

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74. Nicolas Steno

1638-1686 (aged 48)

anatomist Catholic priest crystallographer geologist paleontologist

Niels Steensen was a Danish scientist, a pioneer in both anatomy and geology who became a Catholic bishop in his later years. He has been beatified by the Catholic Church.

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75. Jens Otto Krag

1914-1978 (aged 64)

diplomat economist politician

Jens Otto Krag was a Danish politician, who served as the prime minister of Denmark from 1962 to 1968 and again from 1971 to 1972, and as leader of the Social Democrats from 1962 to 1972. He was president of the Nordic Council in 1971.

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76. Poul Nyrup Rasmussen

1943-. (aged 83)

politician economist

Poul Oluf Nyrup Rasmussen is a retired Danish politician, who served as Prime Minister of Denmark from 25 January 1993 to 27 November 2001 and President of the Party of European Socialists (PES) from 2004 to 2011. He was the leader of the governing Social Democrats from 1992 to 2002 and was also a member of the European Parliament from...

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77. Hans Christian Ørsted

1777-1851 (aged 74)

chemist university teacher pharmacist engineer inventor

Hans Christian Ørsted, sometimes transliterated as Oersted, was a Danish chemist and physicist who discovered that electric currents create magnetic fields. This phenomenon is known as Oersted's law. He also discovered aluminium, a chemical element.

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78. Frederik IX of Denmark

1899-1972 (aged 73)

conductor monarch musician

Frederik IX was King of Denmark from 1947 to 1972.

79. Helle Thorning-Schmidt

1966-. (aged 60)

politician

Helle Thorning-Schmidt is a Danish retired politician who served as the 26th Prime Minister of Denmark from 2011 to 2015, and Leader of the Social Democrats from 2005 to 2015. She is the first woman to have held each post. Following defeat in 2015, she announced that she would step down as both Danish Prime Minister and Social Democratic party...

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80. Lars Løkke Rasmussen

1964-. (aged 62)

jurist politician

Lars Løkke Rasmussen K.1 is a Danish politician serving as Minister of Foreign Affairs and as Leader of the Moderates since 2022. He previously served two non-consecutive terms as Prime Minister of Denmark and as Leader of Venstre between 2009 and 2019.

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81. Peter Freuchen

1886-1957 (aged 71)

explorer writer journalist anthropologist actor

Lorenz Peter Elfred Freuchen was a Danish explorer, author, journalist and anthropologist. He is notable for his role in Arctic exploration, namely the Thule Expeditions.

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82. Vigdís Finnbogadóttir

1930-. (aged 96)

politician

Vigdís Finnbogadóttir is an Icelandic politician who was the fourth president of Iceland, serving from 1980 to 1996, the first woman to hold the position and the first in the world to be democratically elected president of a country. Having served for 16 years, she was also the longest-serving elected female head of state in history. Vigdís is a UNESCO...

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83. Hans Christian Gram

1853-1938 (aged 85)

bacteriologist botanist pharmacologist university teacher

Hans Christian Joachim Gram was a Danish bacteriologist who developed the Gram stain, still a standard technique to classify bacteria and visualize them under a microscope.

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84. Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu

1887-1973 (aged 86)

teacher engineer inventor

Elisa Leonida Zamfirescu was a Romanian engineer who was one of the first women to obtain a degree in engineering. She was born in the Romanian town of Galați but qualified in Berlin. During World War I she managed a hospital in Romania.

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85. Tycho Brahe

1546-1601 (aged 55)

alchemist poet writer astrologer astronomer

Tycho Brahe, generally called Tycho for short, was a Danish astronomer known for his comprehensive and unprecedentedly accurate astronomical observations which helped to turn astronomy into the first modern science and launch the Scientific Revolution. He was known during his lifetime as an astronomer, astrologer, and alchemist. He was the last major astronomer before the invention of the telescope and...

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86. Alex Høgh Andersen

1994-. (aged 32)

voice actor actor

Alex Høgh Andersen is a Danish actor. He is mostly known for the role of Ivar the Boneless in the historical drama television series Vikings (2016–2020).

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87. Hans Christian Andersen

1805-1875 (aged 70)

fairy tale teller librettist journalist children's writer author

Hans Christian Andersen was a Danish author. Although a prolific writer of plays, travelogues, novels, and poems, he is best remembered for his literary fairy tales.

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88. Niels Bohr

1885-1962 (aged 77)

chemist philosopher of science university teacher nuclear physicist association football player

Niels Henrik David Bohr was a Danish theoretical physicist who made foundational contributions to understanding atomic structure and quantum theory, for which he received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1922. He was also a philosopher and a promoter of scientific research.

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89. Søren Kierkegaard

1813-1855 (aged 42)

poet literary critic writer theologian novelist

Søren Aabye Kierkegaard was a Danish theologian, philosopher, poet, social critic, and religious author who is widely considered to be the first existentialist philosopher. He wrote critical texts on organized religion, Christianity, morality, ethics, psychology, love, and the philosophy of religion, displaying a fondness for metaphor, irony, and parables. Much of his philosophical work deals with the issues of how...

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90. Helmuth Nyborg

1937-. (aged 89)

canoeist scientist psychologist university teacher

Helmuth Sørensen Nyborg is a Danish psychologist, writer, far-right politician and former Olympic canoeist. He is a former professor of developmental psychology at Aarhus University. His main research topic is the connection between hormones and intelligence. Among other things, he has worked on increasing the intelligence of girls with Turner's syndrome by giving them estrogen. He has also stood as...

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91. Naser Khader

1963-. (aged 63)

politician writer researcher interpreter radio personality

Naser Khader is a Syrian-Danish politician and member of the Folketing 2001–2011 and again 2015–2022. Until 2021 he was a member of the Conservative People's Party.

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92. Jens Christian Skou

1918-2018 (aged 100)

university teacher autobiographer chemist physiologist biochemist

Jens Christian Skou was a Danish biochemist and Nobel laureate.

93. Bjørn Lomborg

1965-. (aged 61)

economist university teacher statistician political scientist ecologist

Bjørn Lomborg is a Danish political scientist, author, and the president of the think tank Copenhagen Consensus Center. He is the former director of the Danish government's Environmental Assessment Institute (EAI) in Copenhagen. He became internationally known for his best-selling book The Skeptical Environmentalist (2001).

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94. Poul Schlüter

1929-2021 (aged 92)

lawyer politician

Poul Holmskov Schlüter was a Danish politician who served as Prime Minister of Denmark from 1982 to 1993. He was the first (and to date, only) member of the Conservative People's Party to become prime minister, as well as the first conservative to hold the office since 1901. Schlüter was a member of the Folketing (Danish parliament) for the Conservative...

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95. Piet Hein

1905-1996 (aged 91)

poet writer designer mathematician inventor

Piet Hein was a Danish polymath (mathematician, inventor, designer, writer and poet), often writing under the Old Norse pseudonym Kumbel, meaning "tombstone". His short poems, known as gruks or grooks (Danish: gruk), first started to appear in the daily newspaper Politiken shortly after the German occupation of Denmark in April 1940 under the pseudonym "Kumbel Kumbell". He also invented the...

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96. Ove Arup

1895-1988 (aged 93)

engineer structural engineer entrepreneur architect

Sir Ove Nyquist Arup was a British engineer with Danish heritage who founded Arup, a multinational corporation offering engineering, design, planning, project management, and consulting services for building systems. Ove Arup is considered to be among the foremost architectural structural engineers of his time.

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97. Morten P. Meldal

1954-. (aged 72)

researcher biochemist chemist

Morten Peter Meldal is a Danish chemist and Nobel laureate. He is a professor of chemistry at the University of Copenhagen in Copenhagen, Denmark. He is best known for developing the CuAAC-click reaction, concurrently with but independent of Valery V. Fokin and K. Barry Sharpless.

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98. Mette Frederiksen

1977-. (aged 49)

trade unionist politician

Mette Frederiksen K.1 is a Danish politician who has served as the Prime Minister of Denmark since 2019 and the Leader of the Social Democrats since 2015. She is the second woman to hold either office and is also the youngest prime minister in Danish history. She is the first prime minister to be born after Margrethe II's accession to...

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99. Danica Curcic

1985-. (aged 41)

voice actor stage actor actor film actor

Danica Curcic ) (born 27 August 1985 in Belgrade) is a Serbian-Danish actress.

100. Lars Mikkelsen

1964-. (aged 62)

video game actor street artist film actor television actor mime artist

Lars Dittmann Mikkelsen is a Danish actor. He is known for his roles as Copenhagen mayoral election candidate Troels Hartmann in the Danish police procedural The Killing, the character Charles Augustus Magnussen in the third series of the BBC programme Sherlock, fictional Russian president Viktor Petrov in the American political thriller TV series House of Cards, mage Stregobor on the...

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