Curriculum Vitae
Dorte Olesen
Dorte Olesen received her MSc in mathematics and physics from the University of Copenhagen in 1973. She holds a Ph.D. in mathematics as well as a Doctorate of Science, and has received the Gold Medal of the University of Copenhagen. In 1992, she was awarded the Cross of Knight of Dannebrog in silver by HM Queen Margrethe II, and in 2001 awarded the Cross of the First Degree in gold.
Dorte Olesen became an associate professor at the University of Copenhagen in 1980, after postdoc years partially spent in the US and France, and in the years 1986-88 was the Dean of the faculty of Natural Sciences in Copenhagen. The year 1984-85 she was an invited Member of the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute in Berkeley, California. In 1988, she was appointed full professor at the University of Roskilde, and in 1989 the Director General of the Danish IT-Centre for Research and Education, UNI·C which until a re-structuring in 2012-14 into a proper Agency of the Ministry of Education delivered networking and other IT services to the Danish educational sector. In 2011 she returned to university life, joining the Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science of the Technical University of Denmark.
She is President of the Danish association for the dissemination of natural and technical science, Selskabet for Naturlærens Udbredelse, since 1988.
In 1992, she became a member of the High Performance Computing and Networking Advisory Committee of the European Commission, and chaired it’s Networking Subgroup (The LINKS group). Also in connection with the European Commission, she has been a Danish delegate to the Working Party of the Telematics programme DELTA 1991-96, and to the Task Force Human Resources Group of National Experts 1992-96. In the spring 1993, she was a member of the DELTA Review Board, and in the spring 1994 a member of the working group planning the “Telematics for research” programme. In 1997, she participated in the work of the “Strategic Requirements Board for the Fifth Framework Programme”. For the years 2001-2005, she was a member of the EC “Expert Group on ICT in Education” under DG Education & Culture, and 2010-11 a member of the “High level expert group on the future of Géant” (Géant Expert Group or GEG for short) under DG INFSO. From September 2011 she has been a reviewer and evaluator for the EC, and in the spring 2012 she helped the joint European collaborative organisation for high speed network delivery, DANTE, establish an EC liaison function. In September 2012, she was elected Chair of the NREN Policy Committee and Chair for the Assembly planning the GN3+ project. In March 2013, she was elected chair of the Partners Assembly for the GN3+ project which started April 2013 and had the final review (with the rating “Excellent”) at the end of June 2015. In 2013 she was also a member of an EC Expert Group on the implementation of the ERA (European Research Area) formed by the DG Research. In December 2014 she was elected member of the Board of the newly formed GEANT Associaton, a merger between DANTE Ltd. and TERENA, the Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association. In 2014-15, she was a Member of the United Nations Secretary General High Level Panel on the Technology Bank for the Least Developed Countries. The Technology Bank is now expected to start operations in 2017.
In 1987-93, she was a member of the Danish Council for Research Policy, an advisory council to the Danish Government and Parliament, and among other tasks headed a national evaluation of the health sciences and the formulation of a national strategy for the health sciences. In 1991-93 she chaired a Committee on technology supported learning formed by the Danish Minister of Education. She was appointed member of the steering Committee for the Norwegian Scientific Computing Initiative NOTUR from 2000-2004 by the Norwegian Research Council. In 2000-2003 she was a member of the Danish Complaints Board for Domain Names.
In 2003 she was elected President of TERENA, a post she held for the maximum term of 6 years.
In 2011 she chaired the Data Transport Expert Panel for the Square Kilometer Array project.
Dorte Olesen has been Member of the board for the Royal Danish School for Educational Studies from 1992-2000, Member of the board for the Danish Pharmaceutical University 2003-2004, and Chair of the board for Roskilde University from 2004-2008. She was also a Member of the Danish Defense Research Council from 1998-2008.
She also has board membership experience from the commercial sector, from 1990-2003 as member of the board of the big Danish newspaper Politiken A/S, from 1990 and still ongoing a Member of the Politiken Foundation Board, and from 2003 and still ongoing as a Member of the board of the Politiken Holding Company. From 1994-2002 she was a Member of the board of the insurance company Fagpension A/S. She is currently a member of the Women in ICT Leadership Board of the Danish trade association ITB, and Lt. Governor of Zonta Internationals District 13, which covers Denmark, Norway, Iceland and Lithuania.