Short presentation

Professor Morten J. Bjerrum became Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry at the University of Copenhagen in 1988 and was shortly thereafter appointed a position as assistant professor and later as associate professor in bioinorganic chemistry at the Chemistry Department, KVL. From 1990 to 1991 he was visiting professor as The Carlsberg Foundation Scholar at the Beckman Institute, Caltech, USA doing research on long range electron transfer in metalloproteins at Professor Harry Gray’s group. In 2002 Bjerrum was appointed full professor.

Bjerrums main research interests are within bioinorganic chemistry, which is a research field on the borderline between inorganic chemistry, biochemistry and physical chemistry. The aim is to understand the behavior and function of metal ions in biological systems on a molecular level. Main goals of research includes: Structure and function of metalloproteins; coordination chemistry and equilibrium characteristics of metal ions interacting with proteins in solution; long-range electron transfer in metallo-proteins. Especially redox-active metalloenzymes are studied with regard to structure, function, redox properties and kinetics, a research area which has applications within biotechnology and medicine.
Bjerrum has published papers in international journals within inorganic and bioinorganic chemistry, including papers in high impact journals as Science, JACS, JBIC and Inorganic Chemistry. Bjerrum has given numerous invited presentations at international conferences, summer schools and institutions. Morten J. Bjerrum is / has been chairman or member of a number of national and international science organisations, including Danish Chemical Society and EuCheMS executive board.

Bjerrum has also made contributions to the Ph.D education in bioinorganic chemistry as head of the research school Metal ions in biological systems, a research school connecting bioinorganic research groups at SDU, DTU and KU. Bjerrum is in charge of, or teaching at, several BSc and MSc courses at the Faculty of Life Sciences including Chemistry, The chemistry of metal ions in biological systems, Chemistry of Macromolecules, Cofactors and Metal Ions in Biological Systems, Biophysical chemistry 1, Bioinformatics 1 and Thematic Course: Experimental Molecular Biology.