SDU appoints Lau Caspar Thygesen as Professor in Epidemiology and Register-based Research

Lau Caspar Thygesen completed is bachelor degree in political science and master degree in public health at the University of Copenhagen, but has since the final years of his graduate education been affiliated with the National Institute of Public Health as PhD student, assistant and associate professor. In parallel he has been affiliated with the Danish Cancer Society.

Lau Caspar Thygesen has during his research career used registers and large surveys to answer public and clinical questions often in close collaboration with various health professionals and researchers. His research profile started with the use of the Danish Cancer Registry and has since then proliferated within other disease areas for example heart disease and rehabilitation, multiple sclerosis, gastrointestinal diseases, and diseases among specific occupational professions. His focus has often been socio-economic differences in diseases risk, socio-economic consequences of diseases as well as methodological studies of epidemiological biases in register-based studies.

He has also been involved in research political agenda mainly through his previous chair of the Danish Epidemiological Society and has also put forward arguments for structural preventive measures instead of focusing on individualizing treatment. The benefits and potential harms of including all persons in Denmark in register-based studies are important to continuously discuss.

An acknowledge scientist

This broad background within quantitative public health research and infrastructure has given him status as an acknowledge scientist within the area of register-based epidemiological research. He has published more than 140 scientific articles, most often including registers and large surveys as the data sources. Furthermore, he has, together with professor Annette Kjær Ersbøll, been editor on a widely cited compilation of articles describing the Danish registers and the Danish favorable setting for conducting register-based research. He has also chaired several epidemiological courses on register-based research including a cross-Nordic PhD course.

Today he is leader of a research group in public health epidemiology with post.doc.’s, PhD students and research assistants that all focus on prevention of common diseases and risk factors, the consequences of disease and methodological challenges in research based on registers.
Lau Caspar Thygesen lives in Rødovre. He is married to Sarah and together they have a son (12 years) and daughter (10 years). He grew up in and around Roskilde and the city’s festival has indisputable influenced his interest in concerts and cultural and political events.