The European Geosciences Union (EGU) has awarded the 2009 Petrus Perigrinus Medal to the Director of the National Space Institute, Eigil Friis-Christensen. The medal is given for "his fundamental contributions to our knowledge of the Earth's magnetic field from space and his innovative leadership in geomagnetism".
Excerpts from the EGU motivation of the award: "Eigil Friis-Christensen has had a career-long interest in the Earth's magnetic field and his leadership in these efforts caused his appointment as Project Scientist of the first Danish Satellite, Ørsted: launched in 1999 and still operating. He lead the Danish teams and established an International Science team consisting of more than 50 research groups from 14 countries to take advantage of the most accurate observations of the Earth’s magnetic field since the MAGSAT mission of 1979-1980."
"Since 1997, as Director of the Danish Space Research Institute, now the National Space Institute at the Technical University of Denmark, Eigil Friis-Christensen has assumed an increasing leadership role in the geomagnetic field observation from space. In 2002 he followed up on the Ørsted satellite by becoming Lead Investigator of the Swarm mission proposal, "The Earth’s Magnetic Field and Environment Explorers", selected for implementation in the Earth Observation Programme of ESA to be launched in 2010. With the promotion of this new multi-satellite mission, Eigil Friis-Christensen has demonstrated very active involvement in the international scientific community and has devoted an enormous amount of time, thought, and energy to building and supporting infrastructure for our science."
"Eigil Friis-Christensen is a true pioneer in the global geomagnetic community and richly deserves the Petrus Peregrinus Medal. The impact he has had on the geomagnetic community through his Ørsted work, which has spawned an enormous number of new research results, is remarkable."