Claus Christiansen awarded the Herbert A. Fleisch ESCEO-IOF medal

The 2nd Herbert A. Fleisch ESCEO-IOF Medal was awarded today to eminent Danish researcher Dr. Claus Christiansen MD, MMSci.

The prestigious award, valued at 20,000 EUR, is named after the late Professor Herbert A. Fleisch, whose pioneering work contributed to the development of the field of scientific knowledge about metabolic bone diseases and their treatment.

Professor John Kanis, President of the International Osteoporosis Foundation, presented the award in a special ceremony held during the opening of the annual European Congress on Osteoporosis & Osteoarthritis in Bordeaux. He stated, "We are delighted to honour Claus Christiansen for his distinguished body of work. Over a long career, he has spearheaded research in many areas of osteoporosis including the development of densitometry, markers of bone turnover and clinical trials. He was a co-founder of the European Foundation of Osteoporosis – later to become the International Osteoporosis Foundation."

Over the past 30 years, Dr. Christiansen has published extensively in the field of osteoporosis with over 900 articles and book chapters, particularly in the area of calcium metabolism in postmenopausal women. He was Head of the Department of Clinical Pathology and Clinical Chemistry, Glostrup Hospital, University of Copenhagen for 14 years, and was for several years the youngest department chairman in Denmark. He has been Chairman of several international symposia on osteoporosis, and has been an invited speaker on calcium metabolism at almost all international meetings in the field. Today Claus Christiansen is the Chairman and President of Nordic Bioscience and CCBR-Synarc.

"The ESCEO-IOF medal, awarded for the first time in 2010, recognizes a researcher who has made outstanding and groundbreaking achievements in bone science," said Professor Jean-Yves Reginster, President of the European Society for Clinical and Economic Aspects of Osteoporosis and Osteoarthritis (ESCEO). "We are honoured to present this year's Medal to a scientist whose contributions over more than three decades have helped to advance our understanding of osteoporosis. As the organizer of the first International Symposia on Osteoporosis in the 80s and 90s, he has helped to disseminate and encourage scientific advances in the 'early days' of bone research."

Provided by International Osteoporosis Foundation