Jens Rovelt Andreasen
PhD student Jens Rovelt Andreasen is in the DRA PhD programme and participated in the DRA Summer School 2023. Jens decided on a career as a researcher, beginning with the DRA PhD programme, after several years in the pharmaceutical industry, and he is sharing his thoughts on DRA and the new options the programme is giving him:
“I had a career in the pharmaceutical industry for nearly 20 years and during this time I have met PhD’s and could see what they can do. I always wanted to take it a step further than what a Master’s degree lets you do. Because of my experience from the pharmaceutical industry, I began looking in that direction. My own background is in bioinformatics and not as a pharmacist.
I had several reasons for checking out DRA: First, this is where drug development is taking place and second, I have known Miriam Kolko and her research group Eye Translational Research Unit - Kolko group since the beginning of 2000.
To me, it was extremely important to be able to combine my knowledge from the pharmaceutical industry with my knowledge of bioinformatics and the clinical area. I could have chosen some of the PhD programmes at the Faculty of Science, University of Copenhagen because of my bioinformatics background, or applied for a PhD position with a clinical focus at Rigshospitalet, but my own interests are in the combination of the clinical with drug development and bioinformatics – and the DRA programme lets you do that.”
What do you think of DRA’s many offers? “I think they have many offers, the standard is very high and you really get to meet the experts. Of course, the Industrial Career Day is not that relevant for me because of my experience from the industry. However, the DRA courses have been extremely relevant for me and what I do.
The mandatory courses “Responsible conduct of research” and “Introduction to university pedagogy” were really great. The only criticism you can have is that the courses are so popular, so you really need to apply for them as soon as you can.”
What options will a PhD give you in your future career? “A PhD opens for an academic career on another level. In the industry, it makes the expert roles within my research area an option for me, and of course conducting research in the industry. Besides that, there are many possible functions from lab research, clinical research and medical affairs. With a PhD, you can be a specialist and you bring another level of authority to the table than with a Master’s degree. As a PhD, you learn methods and how to see through research and research results.”
Jens Rovelt Andreasen’s supervisor at Department of Drug Design and Pharmacology is Professor Miriam Kolko and he is part of FOREVER, a research project collecting and studying data about eye health in the Danish population in collaboration with Synoptik.
At LinkedIn you can meet Jens Rovelt Andreasen
Interview by Lisbeth Lassen, Communication Consultant, Pharma Communication, Pharma Administration.