After 40 years in research: “I have been paid to attend my hobby”

It all began 1 January 1981 at Askov Experimental Station, at that time a department. It was certainly a revelation for a young biologist educated in terrestrial ecology at University of Copenhagen to dump into an environment where agronomists had ruled ever since the research station was established in 1885. Bent Tolstrup Christensen grew up on a farm in central Zeeland and under the motto that agronomy is really biology at work, he quickly gained a fruitful collaboration with colleagues at the research station. He has never regretted the shift to plant production, environment, and plant nutrition.

"If I have to sum up the past 40 years, it feels as having been paid to attend my hobby," says the jubilee. "It is not the same as saying that there have been no challenges along the way, also difficulties and heavy stuff that could make me to stay awake all night,” says Bent Tolstrup Christensen.

Leadership requires gut feeling

In 1987, Bent Tolstrup Christensen was appointed Acting Head of Askov Experimental Station - as he himself puts it: "there were nobody else to choose from." The following year, he was employed Head of Department and then Head of Section after the move from Askov to Foulum in 1992. The building process in Foulum gave many trips from Askov to Foulum in an Opel Kadett without radio, and from Askov to Billund when negotiations on the agriculture and environment front were red-hot in Copenhagen.

“As a leader, I found that it is important not to stand in the way of people who are willing and able. You need to trust your gut feeling, but also to keep people who are traveling in PowerPoints and hot air on a tight leash,” says Bent Tolstrup Christensen. "Therefore, I believe that screen meetings should only be a supplement to physical meetings, where you can size each other up and have a good dialogue over a cup of coffee."

Soil fertility cleared the way

In his research, Bent Tolstrup Christensen has focused on aspects of soil fertility. A topic that in 2000 became the basis for both a DSc degree at University of Copenhagen and employment as a professor. Here, the long-term experiments on animal manure and mineral fertilizers, established at Askov Experimental Station in 1894, have been an important foundation. For more than 30 years, Bent Tolstrup Christensen has been heading these internationally unique field experiments. They have provided a wide range of results of both applied and basic scientific value, including research in relation to prehistoric archaeology, decay of antibiotic resistance genes in soil, accumulation of heavy metals, and changes in the soil's carbon stock. A large number of international research groups have generated ground-breaking results in collaborative projects using the experiments as a research platform.

Over the years, Bent Tolstrup Christensen has held a number of positions of trust, such as an employee-elected representative in institute boards and academic councils. At a national level, he has, among other things, been a member of The Agricultural and Veterinary Research Council for four years and then a member of the board of the Danish Independent Research Council (DFF) for six years.

“As a member of the board of DFF, I had the opportunity to participate in the process in which the then Minister of Research Helge Sander was to create a new and more centralised structure for Danish research. This meant that sectorial research institutes like DJF had to be merged with a university - but which one? There were proposals for an ambitious national agricultural university with the Agricultural University of Copenhagen as the centre or a merger with the University of Odense. As we all know, this did not happen - with joint help, DJF and NERI became part of Aarhus University. Indeed, that was very exciting times,” says the jubilee.

What’s next?

"Well, I turn 69 years in May - so I will probably have to retire in a not too far future. However, I read in the newspapers that retired professors may continue as emeritus (that is work without salary). They are usually so much more knowledgeable than anybody else and are often somewhat grumpy - well, I do not know," says Bent Tolstrup Christensen before going outside to smoke one of his famous King's.

Congratulations to Bent Tolstrup Christensen on his 40th birthday.