Chapter 1: Professor Leif Oxenløwe

Extract

“Leif Oxenløwe would have been an astronomer. But then he had a teacher in laser and atomic physics who was so inspiring that he did not doubt at all that he wanted to undertake a bachelor’s degree project in the teacher’s group. The same professor also had a large international network, which led to Oxenløwe writing a thesis at Imperial College London, with the professor as the Danish supervisor.”

»If you have seen Mowgli and the snake Kha, then you understand the way I was hypnotized by him. It was almost as if fireworks were coming out of him and coming to London and being taken out of my familiar surroundings was extremely inspiring. They have some of the best educators and the world’s leading experts. Every time they said something, they could also put it into perspective because they had thought about why it was important in a larger context.« 

“At Imperial College, Oxenløwe took a single course in optical communication, which is one type of applied laser physics. But at the time, he was more interested in fundamental laser physics. Back in Denmark, it was more or less coincidental that he did his Ph.D. at DTU in optical communication. He applied for and was offered a few different projects and chose to try something new. There were three Ph.D. students who started simultaneously under the framework of a large program from the Danish Council for Independent Research, all related to communication but with an interdisciplinary approach.”

You can read the full portrait of Professor Leif Oxenløwe (in Danish) by downloading the chapter below.