Jonas Juul receives the H.C. Ørsted Research Talent Award 2025
Assistant Professor at the IT University of Copenhagen, Jonas Juul, has received the H.C. Ørsted Research Talent Awards 2025. Jonas Juul receives the prize for his research on social networks, information technology and complex systems’ physics.
Jonas Juulawards
Written 14 August, 2025 12:28
On 14 August 2025, on H.C. Ørsted’s 248th birthday, the H.C. Ørsted Award and two Research Talent Awards are awarded. This year, one of the research talents is Assistant Professor Jonas Juul from the IT University of Copenhagen. His research primarily concerns the spread of epidemics, social networks, information technology, and the physics of complex systems.
“I am truly happy and honoured that my research in data science and information technology is being recognised for its benefit to society and the role it can play in addressing security threats,” says Jonas Juul, and continues:
“In my research, I enjoy pursuing theoretical and conceptual advances that can have a tangible impact on solving some of society’s major challenges, which are often related to security. Occasionally, it is possible to make a contribution that may actually have real significance in the future, both in terms of security threats and challenges.”
Last year Jonas Juul received a grant from the Novo Nordisk Foundation for the project InForM: Inference, Forecasting, and Mitigation of future pandemics, where he investigates how to improve the statistical models used to predict infection rates during epidemics.
“One of the things I aim to achieve with my research into epidemics is to improve our ability to predict future infection rates during disease outbreaks. During the COVID-19 pandemic, decision-makers had to make choices with far-reaching consequences, based in part on forecasts of how many people were likely to be admitted to intensive care units two weeks into the future,” says Jonas Juul, “these forecasts are part of the assessment used by decision-makers when, for example, deciding to shut down the country, and this can ultimately either cost or save billions of kroner and potentially save lives. If I can help make those forecasts more accurate, I believe that is a truly meaningful way to contribute to society.”
The interest began with Niels Bohr
Although it is the H.C. Ørsted Research Talent Award Jonas Juul is receiving now, his research career actually began with a fascination for one of Denmark’s other great scientists.
“What sparked my interest in research and in contributing to our understanding the world was learning about Niels Bohr’s atomic model and seeing how he described the atom as consisting of a nucleus surrounded by rings of electrons. I found it incredibly fascinating that one could sit down and think their way to an understanding of how something works, and that there was a connection between what you had in your mind, what you wrote down on paper, and what actually exists in the world,” says Jonas Juul.
Now he himself has become a research talent, spending his days describing how both epidemics and misinformation spread among people.
“I began my PhD around the time Donald Trump was elected president for the first time, and back then there was a lot of talk about Russian influence campaigns and misinformation. At that point, many researchers started exploring how epidemic research related to the spread of misinformation, because social media had become widespread and highly influential. That’s how I developed an interest in using mathematics to describe developments in society,” Jonas Juul says, “my interest in society and love of theory have gradually guided me down this path, where I study people’s social networks and how these networks are intertwined with society and various phenomena.”
The H.C. Ørsted Award 2025 is awarded to Professor Morten Meldal from University of Copenhagen, and the other H.C. Ørsted Research Talent Award is awarded to Luisa Sinischalchi from Technical University of Denmark. The award ceremony was held on 14 August 2025 in Rudkøbing on the island of Langeland, where H.C. Ørsted grew up.
Theis Duelund Jensen, Press Officer, phone +45 2555 0447, email thej@itu.dk