Dennis Valbjørn Christensen from DTU Energy Conversion was one of 20 talented PhD students who were last week awarded a grant of DKK 300,000 by Education and Research Minister Sofie Carsten Nielsen.
The EliteForsk travel scholarships are meant to allow the talented students to study for a short or longer period aboard at leading international universities within their respective fields.
"It was pretty cool to get all those money, but getting the scholarship is also a big pat on the back, showing that what I do matters. Also it gives me tremendous freedom to do my PhD where I want," says 27-year-old PhD Student and development engineer Dennis Valbjørn Christensen, DTU Energy Conversion, who got the scholarship due to his research in nanoelectronics and oxide electronic. His study in oxide systems can lead to new and/or improved electrical components and create new knowledge in particular nanoelectronics, quantum mechanics and superconductivity.
"I have selected the four best research teams in my area that I want to visit and now the scholarship makes it possible"
Dennis Valbjørn Christensen
"I got my interest in nanoelectronics through my degree in Nanoscience at the University of Copenhagen, where I first became acquainted with the strange phenomena of quantum mechanics. Later I discovered Professor Nini Pryds ' research group at DTU Energy Conversion, which creates nanoelectronics with many interesting properties from insulating oxides. This was the foundation of my PhD project," tells Dennis Valbjørn Christensen who is doing his PhD project on investigating how to make electrical circuits with nano oxide electronic by applying an electrical potential with an Atomic Force Microscope.
Dennis Valbjørn Christensen has already planned how to use the travel scholarship.
"I have selected the four best research teams in my area that I want to visit and now the scholarship makes it possible. I have scheduled three studies abroad at the Weizmann Institute of Science (Israel), University of Pittsburgh (USA) and either Stanford (USA) or Bar-Ilan University (Israel). The purpose of visiting these places will be a) utilizing advanced techniques that are only a few places in the world, and b) to create a fruitful collaboration with research groups that are leaders in their respective fields."
Dennis Valbjørn Christensen intends to start his Grand Tour de Universities this summer, and it won’t be his first time abroad. Originally from Lolland he lives in Copenhagen, but his girlfriend live in California, and he has traveled excessively in Africa, South-, Central- and North America.