Biography of Niels Asger Mortensen
I was born in Hillerød, Denmark in 1973 and I grew up in the countryside of Sjælland (Zealand) near Sorø. In 1999 I married Minea Kristine Bruusgaard Mortensen and together we have two children, Anton Bruusgaard Mortensen (2001) and Anna Bruusgaard Mortensen (2005). Since 2002 we have been living in Kongens Lyngby, just north of the DTU campus in the beautiful surroundings of Ørholm and Brede. My personal hobbies tend to focus on wine and in particular Italian wine.
Education & research
I went to primary school in Fuglebjerg, and obtained the baccalaureate in natural sciences from Sorø Akademis Skole, Denmark in 1992. Subsequently, I enrolled in the applied-physics program at the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) from where I received the MSc, PhD, and Dr. Techn. degrees in 1998, 2001, and 2005, respectively.
My MSc thesis on Andreev scattering and charge transport in superconductors was supervised by Prof. Bindslev-Hansen (Dept. of Physics, DTU), Prof. Jauho (Mikroelektronik Centret, DTU), and Dr. Flensberg (Danish Inst. Fund. Metrology).
My subsequent PhD study in theoretical physics was supported by a DTU PhD Fellowship and I was supervised by Prof. Jauho (Mikroelektronik Centret, DTU) and Assoc. Prof. Flensberg (Niels Bohr Institute, University of Copenhagen). During the fall of 2000 I was also a visiting scientist in the group of Prof. Beenakker (Instituut–Lorentz, Universiteit Leiden). For those interested in science history, my PhD three includes several prominent scientists :-)
In 2001, I accepted a Research Scientist position at Crystal Fibre A/S - a photonics start-up company founded by Prof. Bjarklev (COM, DTU) together with the Danish industrial NKT group. My industrial research on photonic crystal fibers formed the basis of my habilitation work for the degree of doctor technices which has only been awarded to around 200 scientist during the entire history of DTU.
In 2004 I returned to academia in a faculty position as Associate Professor at Department of Micro and Nanotechnology at DTU. In July 2005 I was tenured and since 2006 I was heading the department’s theoretical optofluidic & metamaterial activities (see also www.optofluidics.dk) supported financially by the Danish Council for Strategic Research through the Strategic Program for Young Researchers (DSF grant #2117-05-0037, ~2.7 MDKK) and more recently by the Danish Research Council for Technology and Production Sciences (FTP #274-06-0507, ~1.9 MDDK).
As of June 2008, my research group and I have moved to the Department of Photonics Engineering where I'm also heading the theory work-package in the recently funded Natec VRK Centre of Excellence headed by Prof. Mørk.
My research interest and experience are centred on theoretical and computational physics and the list of topics includes condensed matter theory, many-body physics, nano & mesoscopic physics, quantum transport, spintronics, photonics, optics of microstructured fibres, photonic crystals, microcavity lasers, microfluidics, optofluidics, and metamaterials.
I shared the European Optics Prize 2004 from the European Optical Society with two collaborators (Dr. J. Riishede and Assoc. Prof. J. Lægsgaard) and Statoil Prisen 2007 was awarded in recognition of my contributions to micro and nanostructured optics. Recently, I received Ung Eliteforskerprisen 2007 and in 2008 I am also a nominated Young Researcher Participant in the 58th Meeting of Nobel Prize Winners in Physics organized by the Council for the Lindau Nobel Laureate Meetings. Most recently, I shared the European Optics Prize 2008 from the European Optical Society with Assist. Prof. S. Xiao (DTU) and Prof. M. Qiu (KTH) for work on transmission of light through sub-wavelength holes in gold thin-films.
