Lene Koch
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lene Koch (born 1947) is a Danish academic researcher, feminist and historian. She was one of the driving forces behind the establishment of the Centre for Women's Research at the University of Copenhagen which she headed from 1981 to 1985. In the late 1980s, she began to specialize in eugenics, conducting a study into test tube fertilization in Denmark. In 1988, she succeeded Nynne Koch as head of Kvinfo, the Danish Centre for Research on Women and Gender. From 1990, she returned to her eugenics research, heading Copenhagen University's Health Services Research Department until she became professor emeritus.[1][2][3]
Born in Virum on 31 July 1947, Lene Koch is the daughter of the library inspector Ole Carl Valdemar Koch (1920–90) and his wife Anna Marie née Ludvigsen (1920–84). In 1972 she gave birth to Nanna ten months later left the father who subsequently cared for her daughter. In 1979 she married the high court judge Henrik Kristian Zahle (born 1943) with whom she gave birth to a second child, Maria.[1]
Raised in an academic, Grundtvig-inspired home, Koch attended N. Zahle's School, where she was specially interested in physics and chemistry. In 1967, she matriculated from Øregård Gymnasium. After first studying classics at the University of Copenhagen, in 1978 she earned a master's degree in English and history. While studying, in the early 1970s she was one of the leading figures in the Students' Council, where she first became interested in women's research.[1]
