Åslaug Helland elected as a member of The Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
We congratulate Åslaug Helland on her election to the prestigious Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. Altogether, four new members are welcomed to the Academy’s Natural Sciences Division in 2023, and Åslaug Helland will join the Medical Sciences group.
The Academy in the beginning of 2023 has 946 members (including retired and foreign members), 540 members in the Natural Sciences Division and 406 members in the Humanities and Social Sciences Division. To be elected as a member, you must be nominated by at least three members, and at least half of the members in the same division must vote in your favour.
Commenting on her election, Åslaug Helland says: “I’m truly honored and grateful to be nominated and elected as a member of the prestigious Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters. I look forward to participating in and contributing to Academy activities”.
Åslaug Helland will be formally presented with her diploma during a ceremony at the Academy of Science and Letters Annual Meeting, which will take place on Wednesday 3 May.
Åslaug Helland is a clinical oncologist, heading the research group Translational studies on solid tumours at the Department of Cancer Genetics, Oslo University Hospital. Moreover, she is a Professor at the Institute of Clinical Medicine, University of Oslo. From 2019, Helland is also the Head of Research in the Oslo University Hospital Comprehensive Cancer Centre, and from 2022, she is the Director of MATRIX, the Norwegian Centre for Clinical Cancer Research. Åslaug Helland has in recent years played a central role in building a national initiative within precision cancer medicine and heads the ongoing national, researcher-initiated clinical trial IMPRESS-Norway for patients with advanced cancer and where treatment is offered based on the molecular profile of the cancer tumour.
“This is a major recognition of Helland’s scientific work and her efforts to translate findings to clinical trials, offering additional lines of treatment” says Kjetil Taskén, Head of Institute for Cancer Research, Oslo University Hospital and Vice President and Head of the Natural Sciences Division of the Academy.
Helland has in particular received international attention for her clinical and translational research. Inspired by her background in cancer genetics and molecular medicine, Helland’s research has aimed to improve the prognosis of cancer patients by identifying biomarkers for predicting treatment responses and at the same time increase the understanding of cancer development.
Professor Øyvind Bruland, oncologist at the Department of Oncology, OUH and currently Head of the Medical Sciences group in the Natural Sciences Division of the Academy says “Congratulations! This is well-deserved, indeed. I have worked clinically with Dr Helland for several years and am impressed by her ability and stamina to “build bridges” from Hospital to Institute – following paths going both ways. She has also clearly voiced the lung-cancer patients’ unmet need in the media. Åslaug Helland is one of the very few active clinicians among members of our Academy”.
About the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters
The Norwegian Academy of Sciences and Letters was founded in 1857 and is an independent, nationwide membership association that covers all scientific disciplines. The Academy has Norwegian and foreign members as well as honorary members. It exists to support the advancement of science and scholarship in Norway and consists of two divisions, Mathematics and Natural Sciences and Humanities.
The Academy presents several prizes annually, including the prestigious Kavli and Abel Prizes.
Visit the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters website. More information about the new members in 2023.
The new members of the Academy have also been presented in Khrono (in Norwegian only).
