Thomas Sinkjær

Thomas Sinkjær R (born 1958) is a Danish scientist and professor of neuroscience and technology at the Department of Health Science and Technology of Aalborg University, Denmark. He is the Secretary General of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters and an elected fellow of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences.

Thomas Sinkjær
Born	March 9, 1958
Nationality	Danish
Alma mater	Aalborg University University of Copenhagen
Scientific career
Fields	Neurophysiology Neural engineering Rehabilitation engineering Biomedical engineering
Institutions	Aalborg University (present) University of Calgary Northwestern University Lundbeck Foundation Danish National Research Foundation Villum Fonden The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters (present)

Education

Sinkjær has a degree in electronic and medical engineering from Aalborg University (1983) where he also completed his PhD in a joint venture with University of Calgary, Canada (1988). Sinkjær has a doctorate in Medicine (DMSc) from Copenhagen University (1998).^[1]

Career

Sinkjær was post-doctoral fellow at Northwestern University, Chicago, from 1989 to 1990. Following this post, he returned to Denmark, where he has been a professor at Aalborg University since 1993.^[1][2][3][4] From 1993 to 2006, he was the director of the Danish National Research Foundations Center for Sensory- Motor Interaction (SMI) at Aalborg University. From 2007 to 2015, Sinkjær was director of the Danish National Research Foundation.^[5][6] He has been director of science of the Villum Foundation from 2015 to 2017. From 2018 to 2019 he was the vice-president of the Lundbeck Foundation,^[7] additionally managing the foundation's talent programme from 2019 to 2021.^[4] In addition to the already mentioned, Sinkjær has held positions in several other boards and organizations. Positions include president of International Society for Functional Electrical Stimulation (IFESS), panel chair of the European Research Council (ERC)'s Advanced Grant Panel, member of the scientific selection committee under the Research Council of Norway, and member of the Danish Minister for Higher Education and Science's Danish Council for Research and Innovation Policy (from 2017 to 2023).^{[8][9][10][11][12]}

Since 2020, Sinkjær has been a member of the presidium of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, of which he was elected Secretary General in 2021.^[13][14][15] Since 2021, he has been a board member of the Elsass Foundation,^[16] where he is also head of committee for the Elsass Foundation Research Prize.^[17] Sinkjær is chairman of the boards of Bevica Fonden and Bevica Innovation, and the Danish national Siemens Foundation (part of the Global Alliance of Siemens Foundations).^[18][19]

Awards and honors (selected)

• 1996: Villum Kann Rasmussen’s Annual Grant^[20]
• 2002: Medico-Award, Danish Medical Device Industry for outstanding research within Biomedical Engineering^[21]
• 2004: International Steven Hoogendijk Award in Medical Engineering^[22]
• 2004: The Research Award of Vanførefonden^[23]
• 2010: Mathilde and Jeppe Juhl's Memorial Scholarship^[24]
• 2015: Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog, Denmark^[25][26][27]

Selected works

Thomas Sinkjær has contributed more than 200 scientific papers, reviews, and book chapters.^[28]

Five of his most cited papers are:

• Dietz, Volker; Sinkjaer, Thomas (2007-08). "Spastic movement disorder: impaired reflex function and altered muscle mechanics". The Lancet Neurology. 6 (8): 725–733. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(07)70193-X (open access).
• Sinkjaer, T.; Toft, E.; Andreassen, S.; Hornemann, B. C. (1988-09-01). "Muscle stiffness in human ankle dorsiflexors: intrinsic and reflex components". Journal of Neurophysiology. 60 (3): 1110–1121. doi:10.1152/jn.1988.60.3.1110 (open access).
• Sinkjær, T.; Magnussen, I. (1994). "Passive, intrinsic and reflex-mediated stiffness in the ankle extensors of hemiparetic patients". Brain. 117 (2): 355–363. doi:10.1093/brain/117.2.355 (subscription).
• Sinkjær, T.; Andersen, J. B.; Ladouceur, M.; Christensen, L. O. D.; Nielsen, J. B. (2000-03). "Major role for sensory feedback in soleus EMG activity in the stance phase of walking in man". The Journal of Physiology. 523 (3): 817–827. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7793.2000.00817.x (open access).
• Lyons, G.M.; Sinkjaer, T.; Burridge, J.H.; Wilcox, D.J. (2002-12). "A review of portable FES-based neural orthoses for the correction of drop foot". IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. 10 (4): 260–279. doi:10.1109/TNSRE.2002.806832 (open access).

References

1. "Computer Science Research Evaluation 2001–2005" (PDF). Department of Computer Science, Aalborg University. March 2006. (PDF) from the original on 9 May 2023. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
2. "Curriculum Vitae, Thomas Sinkjær, last update 2007" (PDF). Danish National Research Foundation. (PDF) from the original on 9 May 2023. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
3. "Curriculum Vitae, Thomas Sinkjær, latest update 2012" (PDF). Danish National Research Foundation. (PDF) from the original on 9 May 2023. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
4. "CV" (PDF). Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. (PDF) from the original on 8 May 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
5. . Archived from the original on 16 May 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
6. "Reception for outgoing director Thomas Sinkjaer and new DRNF director Soeren Peter Olesen". Danish National Research Foundation. 28 August 2015. from the original on 10 September 2015. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
7. "Strong profile to spearhead the Lundbeck Foundation's new grant strategy". Lundbeck Fonden. 29 November 2017. from the original on 8 May 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
8. "Nye medlemmer til Innovationsfondens bestyrelse og Danmarks Forsknings- og Innovationspolitiske Råd" [New members for The Danish Council for Research and Innovation Policy (DFiR)]. Ministry of Higher Education and Science (in Danish). 15 March 2017. from the original on 8 May 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
9. "Council members 2020". Ministry of Higher Education and Science. from the original on 8 May 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
10. "History – IFESS". from the original on 15 May 2023. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
11. "ERC Advanced Grant 2014 Peer Review Panels members" (PDF). erc.europa.eu. (PDF) from the original on 16 May 2023. Retrieved 12 May 2023.
12. "research support extranet page on the organization of the national research councils" (PDF). University of Oslo. (PDF) from the original on 16 May 2023.
13. "Presidium | Royal Academy". www.royalacademy.dk. from the original on 9 May 2023. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
14. "Professor Thomas Sinkjaer elected new secretary general at the Royal Academy". The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters. 12 April 2021. from the original on 4 May 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
15. Frandsen, Søren (29 March 2021). "Thomas Sinkjær ny generalsekretær i Videnskabernes Selskab". Science Report (in Danish). from the original on 16 May 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
16. "Medlemsside for Elsass bestyrelsesmedlem Thomas Sinkjær" [Member page for Elsass board member Thomas Sinkjær]. Elsass Foundation (in Danish). 4 March 2021. from the original on 8 May 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
17. "Elsass Fonden - About Thomas Sinkjær (committee chairman)". www.elsassfonden.dk. 8 January 2020. from the original on 16 May 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
18. "Bevicas bestyrelser" [Board members of the Bevia Foundation and Bevica Innovation Ltd]. Bevica (in Danish). from the original on 16 May 2023. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
19. "Siemens Fonden". Siemens Danmark (in Danish). from the original on 16 May 2023. Retrieved 15 May 2023.
20. "Previous recipients of the annual award". THE VELUX FOUNDATIONS. 22 March 2017. from the original on 16 May 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
21. "Foreningen | Medicoindustrien" [The Medicoindustry Award]. medicoindustrien.dk (in Danish). August 2016. from the original on 16 May 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
22. "Sjælden pris til Aalborg-forsker" [Rare prize given to Aalborg researcher]. Ugeskrift for læger. The Danish Medical Association. 3 November 2005. from the original on 9 May 2023. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
23. "Forskerprisen | vanfoerefonden.dk". Vanførefonden (in Danish). 19 May 2017. from the original on 16 May 2023. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
24. "Statistics". SMI - Center for Sensory-Motor Interaction. See entry on 'Juhls Mindelegat'. from the original on 9 May 2023. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
25. "Grundforsker er blevet slået til ridder" [Bssic researcher knighted]. Altinget (in Danish). 11 May 2015. from the original on 9 May 2023. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
26. Kamstrup, Camilla (24 August 2015). "Villumfonden til audiens" [The Villum Foundation had an audience]. Altinget (in Danish). Retrieved 9 May 2023.
27. "Modtagere af danske dekorationer" [Receivers of Danish royal orders of chivalry and royal merit and reward medals]. Kongehuset (Database) (in Danish). Search term: Sinkjær. Retrieved 8 May 2023.
28. "Scopus - Author search results". www.scopus.com. Retrieved 9 May 2023.

External links

• Profile at Aalborg University