Text and photo by David Graff, AAU Communication & Public Affairs. Translation: LeeAnn Giovanni, AAU Communication & Public Affairs.

In 2008, he was employed as an associate professor at Aalborg University, in 2014 he was appointed professor, and from 2018 to 2023, he was head of department at the Department of Chemistry and Bioscience. 

Michael Toft Overgaard brings his in-depth knowledge of the university's strategy, history and employees to the position of Vice Dean for Research and Innovation at the Faculty of Engineering and Science.

Impact and Innovation are key 

According to Michael Toft Overgaard, this knowledge is a great strength as it serves as a strong basis for charting a new and ambitious course:  

"Aalborg University has the chance to play a special role in e.g. the green transition, and when it comes to most of the world's major crises. Because our research areas are central and our research environments are excellent, but also because we are mission-oriented and collaborative," says Michael Toft Overgaard. 

In combination with innovation, this kind of impact is ideal for the strategic initiatives that must take priority in the future, and where, for example, the development of talented researchers and the expansion of positions of strength will also be a focus. 

Michael Toft Overgaard has obvious advantages in this work, according to Dean Jesper Wengel:

"With his extensive research experience, his collaboration skills and his detailed knowledge of the faculty and Aalborg University, Michael is the right person to develop and lead the strategic initiatives that will further unleash the great potential for groundbreaking research and socially relevant innovation at ENGINEERING," he says and continues:

"A unanimous appointment committee thus selected Michael from among a diverse and international field of applicants, and I am really looking forward to welcoming him to the dean's office and the faculty management team."

Maintaining research activity

Alongside his role as head of the Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Michael Toft Overgaard made his mark internationally as a researcher. For example, when he and his wife, Professor Mette Nyegaard, presented research that led to the release of Australian Kathleen Folbigg who was convicted of murdering her four children.

Read more in the article 'AAU researchers' discovery leads to overturning of Australian woman's conviction for child murders'

"Initially, I will retain my role as research group leader, and I believe it’s great advantage to have a foot in each camp. It will be easier for me to see things through a “user lens” and understand how the initiatives from the faculty management team will be received where they will actually be implemented," Michael Toft Overgaard assesses.

He believes that a keen eye for the connections across the organization is crucial if he, along with the rest of the faculty management team, is to succeed in unleashing the research potential at the faculty to an even greater extent: 

"I am absolutely convinced that there is still huge potential to be unlocked if we collectively aim a little higher in our amazing research environments," he assesses.

According to Michael Toft Overgaard, the potential is not only about specific, delimited areas in, for example, energy, health, production, genetics and construction, but also about larger, broader societal agendas regarding, for example, the green transition. 

And then it's about communication:

"The line between fake and fact is increasingly being challenged, and there is fierce competition for the attention of decision makers. But we have real knowledge at our disposal and therefore have a responsibility to help the wider world understand what is right and wrong," says Michael Toft Overgaard.

Decency and community

Earlier this year, Michael Toft Overgaard said in an interview with the Carlsberg Foundation that he had never imagined that he would be either a researcher or a manager, but that his curiosity led him in that direction anyway. 

"I come from a very non-academic family, but as a child I was very interested in nature and how it works. That interest grew through the education system, and at Aarhus University, where I started studying chemistry and biotechnology in 1991, I was captivated by the researchers' curiosity and stubborn pursuit of new discoveries," he explains in the interview.

Read the Carlsberg Foundation's portrait of Michael Toft Overgaard (in Danish)

Throughout his career, the primary motivation for Michael Toft Overgaard has been a desire to be part of something larger and meaningful rather than necessarily being in the spotlight himself. This also applies to the leadership and management role:

"I prefer to focus on collaboration so that we can succeed together. Both as a manager and in research where there are otherwise many loners. For me, it's about decency, respect and doing what makes sense," he concludes. 

Michael Toft Overgaard is 56 years old and lives in Gistrup and Copenhagen. He worked at Aarhus University and Stanford University Medical School before he was employed as an associate professor at Aalborg University in 2008.