Award-Winning Professor: “I’ve always wanted to leave my mark on the field”

This year, he is honoured with the first-ever Award for Outstanding Research in Veterinary Medicine. 

That is how Henrik Elvang Jensen describes his motivation for his work. And that is also how Henrik has become one of the most prominent figures of his field in Denmark as well as internationally – because he wants to be involved, and to leave a lasting mark.

He is a Professor of Veterinary Pathology at the Department of Veterinary and Animal Sciences at the University of Copenhagen. He also serves on influential boards, councils, and committees such as the European College of Veterinary Pathologists and the European Food Safety Authority, which are bodies that set the standards for veterinary practice far beyond his home university.

Henrik is now being honoured with the first-ever Award for Outstanding Research in Veterinary Medicine, awarded by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences together with Agria, recognising his impact throughout his career. In particular, Henrik has become a leading figure in veterinary forensics and mycoses, which are invasive fungal infections affecting animals and humans.

Giving animals a voice

In many ways, Henrik has helped give a legal voice to animals in Denmark during court cases of animal abuse. As a veterinary pathologist, Henrik performs autopsies on euthanised or dead animals to find out what injuries or changes they have in their tissues, and why those changes have occurred. These findings are then used in legal cases.

But when Henrik first became a veterinarian, the foundational knowledge about bruises, lesions and especially the timing of such injuries had not yet been thoroughly established. Henrik’s solution was to do those studies.

That pursuit of certainty has strengthened legal cases and reshaped everyday practices in animal farming. Henrik has been the driving force in developing guidelines for animal husbandry that have drastically reduced, e.g. shoulder ulcers in sows, as well as spearheading information campaigns to Danish farmers urging them to stop using car tyres to hold feed for cattle, as the wire within the tyres wound up getting eaten as well, damaging the cattle’s stomachs.

Fascination with fungi

Henrik’s other primary research focus is fungal infections in humans and animals, mycoses, and their diagnosis. He has worked on fungi for so long that he can often identify them simply by examining a cross-section. And to top it off, he has developed in-situ methods - in their natural setting rather than in test tubes - to characterise fungi by identifying specific proteins in cells and tissues. These are used worldwide.

 “It’s absolutely essential for precise diagnostics of fungal infections. For example, it’s not enough to say that it’s yeast or mould. You have to identify on a species level to give the right treatment,” says Henrik.

Henrik is a key contributor to global diagnostic and treatment guidelines for fungal infections, something he attributes to his network of colleagues worldwide. As he says, he has been fortunate enough that they send him so many samples that he has gotten far more experience with fungal infections than most of his peers, as these types of infections are relatively rare compared to viral or bacterial infections. For now, at least.

A moment of ‘magic’

It was not predestined for Henrik to become a veterinarian, and even less so to become part of the academic side of veterinary science. His father was a craftsman, his mother was a nurse, and they grew up in a house on the Danish island of Læsø. He spent his afternoons helping on a farm, tending pigs and cows, and initially imagined this to be his career. But a memorable encounter with a veterinarian changed all that.

After finishing his studies, Henrik worked as a veterinarian for a year and a half in North-West Jutland. But he found the work too repetitive and lacked the challenges he craved. By chance, a position in pathology opened at the University of Copenhagen, and he seized it.

“I was totally captivated from the start. Both of the field itself and the possibilities that came from going so deeply into the field: better source criticism and discussions, and you get influence in the field. That’s what hooked me, and it still does today. So, it was by chance that I became a pathologist, and now I always tell my PhD students not to be too afraid of chance defining your path,” says Henrik.

Looking ahead

After 40 years at the forefront of veterinary pathology, there are few signs of Henrik slowing down, despite being 67 years old. He has accepted that he will probably not take on any new PhD students to supervise, having supervised more than 20 throughout his career. For now, he will continue his work, teach veterinary students and organise international courses, particularly in fungal diagnostics. 

“As long as I’m still at my full faculties, I want to continue and contribute with research, teaching and mentoring. These are the ways I can still make a difference. So, I don’t know when it’s time to stop for good. But I do know that I want a dog when the time comes,” says Henrik.

Receiving the Award for Outstanding Research in Veterinary Medicine is both an honour and, at this time in his career, also a recognition of a lifetime of impact. For Henrik, it’s a source of personal pride, sprinkled with some humility, and a lot of happiness. But he also feels the recognition has a larger impact:

Interview conducted and written by:
Thomas Sten Pedersen, University of Copenhagen

More reading:

Press release about the award-winner 2025 (Sep 4, 2025)

An interview with Professor Henrik Elvang Jensen conducted by Agria (in Swedish)

This year, Swedish veterinary medicine and veterinary education celebrate 250 years – read more about the anniversary  (in Swedish)