Petter Risøe

Oslo, Norway
Advanced Professional MPH program

Petter Risøe already has a medical degree, and he’s nearly completed a doctorate on how genes affect people who develop postoperative infections. He also studied law for a year while on paternity leave with his oldest child.

He has come from Oslo to Yale to hone his research skills. “The prime reason for coming is for a good toolbox for doing high-quality studies later on,” he says. “One of the good things about America is you put a lot of emphasis on methodology in your science training, more than they do in Europe.”

One resource for research is Norway’s long-term study of 110,000 pregnant women and their children, the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study. “It will be a gold mine as these people grow up and develop certain diseases.” Risøe says. “There are endless possibilities.”

He and his wife, immigration lawyer Christine Oppegaard, are settling in with their three children, including a newborn.

“It’s nice to invest the time in learning the skills to do good, good science,” says Risøe. He’s especially interested in biostatistics, epidemiology and clinical research design. “Then you go on and design good studies,” he says. “I want to use what I learn to improve the world.”