Copenhagen University’s Herlev and Gentofte Hospital hosted a farewell symposium for Professor Henrik S. Thomsen on 25 April, moderated by consultant radiologist and clinical associate professor Dr. Vibeke Løgager of the radiology department.
Approximately 150 guests attended the invitation-only event, which was held between 13:30 and 17:30, concluding with a reception.
The symposium program was introduced by the hospital’s deputy director, Bodil Ørkild, PhD, and the head of radiology, Dr. Christina Kinnander.
Left to right: Prof. Ole Graumann, Dr. Aart J. van der Molen (from Leiden University Medical Centre and contrast media working group of the ESUR), Prof. Henrik Thomsen, Prof. Jelle Barentsz, and Prof. Lorenzo Derchi. Photos courtesy of Dr. Vibeke Løgager.
Subsequent presentations were made by speakers from academic medical centers throughout Europe, including Prof. Adam Espe Hansen from the University of Copenhagen, who addressed current trends of medical imaging research; Prof. Lorenzo Derchi of the University of Genoa, Italy, who spoke on the history of the European Society of Urogenital Radiology (ESUR); Prof. Ole Graumann from the Radiology Department at Aarhus University Hospital, who spoke on radiology research’s history, present, and future; and Herlev and Gentofte’s Director Niels Würgler, who spoke on the future of research at the hospital.
Prof. Jelle Barentsz, from Nijmegen Medical Center of Radboud University in the Netherlands, spoke about a particularly hot topic: “The future perspective of prostate MRI.”
The last speaker was Prof. Thomsen himself, offering closing words to the attendees before the reception.
The farewell symposium for Prof. Henrik Thomsen was attended around 150 invited guests.
Thomsen served as chief editor of Acta Radiologica for seven years, stepping down in February 2025. Upon his retirement, the journal published a tribute to him, highlighting many of his contributions to the field of radiology.
Over the course of his career, Thomsen has authored 655 manuscripts; participated in faculty appointments at such institutions as Yale, the University of Manchester, and the University of California, Los Angeles; and advanced musculoskeletal radiology, contrast media safety, and uroradiology. He received the ESUR's Lifetime Achievement Award in 2010 and a Special Award in 2022.
He was instrumental in implementing prostate MRI in Denmark, mitigating the use of potentially unnecessary biopsies. As chair of ESUR’s Contrast Media Safety Committee, Thomsen played a central role in updating the Society's gadolinium guidelines in 2018.
Thomsen had been previously engaged in a legal dispute with GE HealthCare (GEHC) based on Thomsen’s criticism of GEHC’s Omniscan gadolinium-based MRI contrast agent; Thomsen contended that such gadolinium-based agents were potentially associated with nephrogenic systemic fibrosis (NSF). The legal case was resolved in 2010.
