biology

Thomas Sinkjær

Thomas Sinkjær is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Thomas Sinkjær rather than just read about it. In short: Thomas Sinkjær R (born 1958) is a Danish scientist and professor of neuroscience and technology at the Department of Health Science and Technology of Aalborg University, Denmark. He is the Secretary General of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters and an elected fellow of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences.

Key takeaways

Thomas Sinkjær belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Thomas Sinkjær to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Thomas Sinkjær from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Thomas Sinkjær R (born 1958) is a Danish scientist and professor of neuroscience and technology at the Department of Health Science and Technology of Aalborg University, Denmark. He is the Secretary General of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters and an elected fellow of the Danish Academy of Technical Sciences.

Education Sinkjær has a degree in electronic and medical engineering from Aalborg University (1983) where he also completed his PhD in a joint venture with University of Calgary, Canada (1988). Sinkjær has a doctorate in Medicine (DMSc) from Copenhagen University (1998).

Career Sinkjær was post-doctoral fellow at Northwestern University, Chicago, from 1989 to 1990. Following this post, he returned to Denmark, where he has been a professor at Aalborg University since 1993. From 1993 to 2006, he was the director of the Danish National Research Foundations Center for Sensory- Motor Interaction (SMI) at Aalborg University. From 2007 to 2015, Sinkjær was director of the Danish National Research Foundation. He has been director of science of the Villum Foundation from 2015 to 2017. From 2018 to 2019 he was the vice-president of the Lundbeck Foundation, additionally managing the foundation's talent programme from 2019 to 2021. In addition to the already mentioned, Sinkjær has held positions in several other boards and organizations. Positions include president of International Society for Functional Electrical Stimulation (IFESS), panel chair of the European Research Council (ERC)'s Advanced Grant Panel, member of the scientific selection committee under the Research Council of Norway, and member of the Danish Minister for Higher Education and Science's Danish Council for Research and Innovation Policy (from 2017 to 2023). Since 2020, Sinkjær has been a member of the presidium of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, of which he was elected Secretary General in 2021. Since 2021, he has been a board member of the Elsass Foundation, where he is also head of committee for the Elsass Foundation Research Prize. Sinkjær is chairman of the boards of Bevica Fonden and Bevica Innovation, and the Danish national Siemens Foundation (part of the Global Alliance of Siemens Foundations).

Awards and honors (selected) 1996: Villum Kann Rasmussen’s Annual Grant 2002: Medico-Award, Danish Medical Device Industry for outstanding research within Biomedical Engineering 2004: International Steven Hoogendijk Award in Medical Engineering 2004: The Research Award of Vanførefonden 2010: Mathilde and Jeppe Juhl's Memorial Scholarship 2015: Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog, Denmark

Selected works Thomas Sinkjær has contributed more than 200 scientific papers, reviews, and book chapters. Five of his most cited papers are:

Dietz, Volker; Sinkjaer, Thomas (2007-08). "Spastic movement disorder: impaired reflex function and altered muscle mechanics". The Lancet Neurology. 6 (8): 725–733. doi:10.1016/S1474-4422(07)70193-X (open access). Sinkjaer, T.; Toft, E.; Andreassen, S.; Hornemann, B. C. (1988-09-01). "Muscle stiffness in human ankle dorsiflexors: intrinsic and reflex components". Journal of Neurophysiology. 60 (3): 1110–1121. doi:10.1152/jn.1988.60.3.1110 (open access). Sinkjær, T.; Magnussen, I. (1994). "Passive, intrinsic and reflex-mediated stiffness in the ankle extensors of hemiparetic patients". Brain. 117 (2): 355–363. doi:10.1093/brain/117.2.355 (subscription). Sinkjær, T.; Andersen, J. B.; Ladouceur, M.; Christensen, L. O. D.; Nielsen, J. B. (2000-03). "Major role for sensory feedback in soleus EMG activity in the stance phase of walking in man". The Journal of Physiology. 523 (3): 817–827. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7793.2000.00817.x (open access). Lyons, G.M.; Sinkjaer, T.; Burridge, J.H.; Wilcox, D.J. (2002-12). "A review of portable FES-based neural orthoses for the correction of drop foot". IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. 10 (4): 260–279. doi:10.1109/TNSRE.2002.806832 (open access).

References

External links Profile at Aalborg University

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Thomas Sinkjær

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Thomas Sinkjær claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Thomas Sinkjær before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Thomas Sinkjær ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Thomas Sinkjær

In research: Thomas Sinkjær appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Thomas Sinkjær in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Thomas Sinkjær is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1958 births, Biomedical engineers, Danish medical researchers, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Thomas Sinkjær outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

Ask Teacher Smith questions about this articleOpens your AI tutor with a question about “Thomas Sinkjær” →

Affiliate

Preply — study more efficiently by working with a personal tutor. 50% off.

How to study Thomas Sinkjær in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Thomas Sinkjær means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Thomas Sinkjær out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Thomas Sinkjær in simple terms?

Why does Thomas Sinkjær matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Thomas Sinkjær?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Thomas Sinkjær.