Kristian Stromgaard, PhD

CEO and CSO at Avilex Pharma

Kristian Strømgaard (born: 1970) obtained an MSc degree in Chemical Research from University College London, and continued as a PhD student in medicinal chemistry, part-time at the Danish company H. Lundbeck. He did a post doc at Columbia University (New York), and shortly after, he was appointed H. Lundbeck Professor at the age of 36 to establish research in Chemical Biology. He won the ‘Teacher of the Year’ award from the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science (Univ. Cph.) in 2009. In 2012, he co-founded Avilex Pharma, and have brought the lead compound AVLX-144 through Phase 1 clinical studies. In 2014, he was appointed Director of Center for Biopharmaceuticals, where he has headed a research center on peptide and protein engineering. Recently, he was visiting professor at Harvard Medical School (Boston) to explore medical research and innovation. A particular focus since 2006 has been on research management, including a course at Harvard Business School and he is an often-used speaker and teacher in courses on research management. In 2021 he was appointed Novo Nordisk Foundation Distinguished Innovator and awarded the 2021 University of Copenhagen Innovation Award.