Bengt Johan Fredrik Nordén (born May 15, 1945 in

Lund Lund (, , ) is a city in the southern Swedish provinces of Sweden, province of Scania, across the Øresund, Öresund strait from Copenhagen. The town had 91,940 inhabitants out of a municipal total of 121,510 . It is the seat of Lund Municipali ...

) is a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

chemist.

Biography and academic career

Bengt Nordén graduated 1967 with a Master of Science degree in chemistry, theoretical physics and mathematics from

Lund University , motto = Ad utrumque , mottoeng = Prepared for both , established = , type = Public research university , budget = SEK 9 billion Chalmers University of Technology Chalmers University of Technology ( sv, Chalmers tekniska högskola, often shortened to Chalmers) is a Swedish university located in Gothenburg that conducts research and education in technology and natural sciences at a high international level ...

. Nordén's research concerns optical

Linear dichroism Linear dichroism (LD) or diattenuation is the difference between absorption of light polarized parallel and polarized perpendicular to an orientation axis. It is the property of a material whose transmittance depends on the orientation of linearly ...

spectroscopy of macroscopically oriented, mainly bio-macromolecular systems. He has developed novel DNA-binding ligands, such as bis-intercalating compounds and peptide nucleic acids (PNA), and demonstrated DNA-ligand reorganisations between groove-binding and intercalation binding geometries involving extreme activation energies and recognition due to kinetic (in contrast to thermodynamic) selection. His method “Site Specific Linear Dichroism by Molecular Replacement” methodology applied to DNA complexes with RecA and Rad51 recombination proteins has revealed details of the recombination mechanism and is also applied to study structure of membrane proteins in a true membrane environment. Nordén was councilor for Science and Technology to the Swedish Government in 1991-1994. He was Chairman of the selection committee for the

European Science Foundation The European Science Foundation (ESF) is an association of 11 member organizations devoted to scientific research in 8 European countries. ESF is an independent, non-governmental, non-profit organisation that promotes the highest quality science ...

’s Young Research Investigator Awards 2003-2006; chemistry editor of the

Swedish National Encyclopedia ''Nationalencyklopedin'' (; "The National Encyclopedia" in English), abbreviated NE, is a comprehensive contemporary Swedish-language encyclopedia, initiated by a favourable loan from the Government of Sweden of 17 million Swedish kronor in 1980 ...

, Chairman of the Chemistry Section of the

Swedish Research Council The Swedish Research Council ( sv, Vetenskapsrådet) is a Government agency in Sweden established in 2001, with the responsibility to support and develop basic scientific research. Its objective is for Sweden to be a leading nation in scienti ...

1996-2000. He is currently Chair of the

Nanyang Technological University The Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is a national research university in Singapore. It is the second oldest autonomous university in the country and is considered as one of the most prestigious universities in the world by various inte ...

Research Council (

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

) and Chair of the board of editors of Quarterly Reviews of Biophysics Nordén is a member of the

Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskapsakademien) is one of the Swedish Royal Academies, royal academies of Sweden. Founded on 2 June 1739, it is an independent, non-governmental scientific organization that takes special ...

since 1991 and was member of the Nobel Committee for Chemistry from 1995 to 2004, and the Committee's chairman from 2000 to 2003 and the Academy's Chemistry Section chairman 2004-2009. He is a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences, The

Royal Physiographic Society in Lund The Royal Physiographic Society in Lund ( sv, Kungliga Fysiografiska Sällskapet i Lund), is one of the Royal Academies in Sweden. It was founded in Lund, on December 2, 1772, and received a Royal Charter by Gustav III, on March 6, 1778.

, The

Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg The Royal Society of Arts and Sciences in Gothenburg ( sv, Kungliga Vetenskaps- och Vitterhets-Samhället i Göteborg, abbreviated KVVS and often known simply as ''Samhället'') is a Swedish Royal Academy. Its predecessor was founded in Gothenburg ...

( Kungliga Vetenskaps- och Vitterhetssamhället i Göteborg), The National Academy of Sciences of Germany (

German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founded ...

), the

Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences in Finland Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

, The Norwegian Academy of Science,

The Finnish Society of Science and Letters The Finnish Society of Sciences and Letters is a Finnish academy for natural sciences, social sciences and humanities. It is known in Latin as Societas Scientiarum Fennica, in Swedish as Finska Vetenskaps-Societeten, and in Finnish as Suomen Tiede ...

, and

The Academy of Sciences for the Developing World The World Academy of Sciences (TWAS) is a merit-based science academy established for developing countries, uniting 1,000 scientists in some 70 countries. Its principal aim is to promote scientific capacity and excellence for sustainable deve ...

(TWAS).

Molecular Frontiers

Nordén is founder of

Molecular Frontiers The Molecular Frontiers Foundation (MFF) was founded under the auspices of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 2007 by Bengt Nordén, a professor of physical chemistry at Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden and the former chair of the ...

, a global organization with objective to early identify breakthroughs in science and to stimulate young people's interests in science. Molecular Frontiers has in its Advisory Board many very research active Nobel Laureates.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Norden, Bengt Johan Fredrik 1945 births Swedish chemists Living people Inorganic chemists Members of the Royal Physiographic Society in Lund Members of the Royal Society of Sciences and Letters in Gothenburg Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences Members of the Royal Swedish Academy of Engineering Sciences Members of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina Members of the Norwegian Academy of Science and Letters

Biography and academic career

Molecular Frontiers

See also

References