New names
Mark A. Ainsworth has been appointed head of the PhD School at the Faculty of Health Sciences
Professor Mark A. Ainsworth, PhD, D.M.Sc., has been appointed head of the PhD School at the Faculty of Health Sciences at SDU as of 1 March 2024.
Mark A. Ainsworth (62) has taught medical students for more than 25 years and has supervised several PhD projects during the same period, which has given him a desire to get more involved in the business of running and further developing the well-functioning PhD School at the Faculty of Health Sciences, SDU.
- It is a great honour and pleasure to take over the position as head of the PhD School. I have always been passionate about research, teaching and supervision. In my new role I hope that I can help ensure scientific education of the highest quality, says Mark A. Ainsworth.
- This is why Mark A. Ainsworth is the perfect replacement for Christian Godballe as head of the PhD School. Mark has extensive experience and knowledge within the entire area of the PhD School, and he has the professional gravitas to lead the PhD School onwards in the best possible way as the successor to his excellent predecessor in the position, says Dean Ole Skøtt, Faculty of Health Sciences
Mark A. Ainsworth conducts clinical research in chronic inflammatory bowel diseases, including Crohn’s disease and ulcerative colitis. He is a consultant and professor at the Department of Gastrointestinal Diseases S, Odense University Hospital (OUH) and the Department of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark (SDU).
He has been the principal investigator of several national and international, non-industry sponsored clinical trials to investigate the use of biologic drugs in the treatment of chronic inflammatory bowel diseases. He has just launched another such study. The industry has provided numerous studies to elucidate the safety and efficacy of biologic drugs; however, these are primarily aimed at providing evidence on when to start treatment, not when to stop treatment or reduce the dose. The latter is very interesting clinically, but of course not very interesting commercially. In order to determine treatment strategies, it is important that the latter issue is also addressed in clinical trials.
Mark A. Ainsworth has been affiliated with Odense University Hospital as a consultant since 2018. He received his medical degree from the University of Copenhagen in 1986. He obtained a PhD degree in 1992 and a doctorate degree in 2000, both from the University of Southern Denmark. He was employed as a clinical associate professor at the University of Copenhagen from 2010 to 2018. Since 2021, Mark A. Ainsworth has been a professor at SDU. So far, he has achieved a scientific output of 127 publications (Web of Science) in international and national scientific journals.
Mark A. Ainsworth replaces Christian Godballe who has held the position since 2018. Under Christian Godballe’s management, more than 624 people have obtained a PhD degree and 815 new PhD students have been enrolled.
Meet the researcher
Mark A. Ainsworth has been appointed head of the PhD School at the Faculty of Health Sciences at SDU as of 1 March 2024. Mark A. Ainsworth was born in Odense in 1961. He lives in Odense, Denmark.