Rate My Professor Lasse Nielsen

Lasse Nielsen is Professor in the Department of Design, Media and Educational Science at the University of Southern Denmark, Faculty of Humanities. As Head of the Values and Welfare Research Group, he leads interdisciplinary research on philosophical and ethical questions related to values and wellbeing, including philosophy of health and ethics, theories of wellbeing, political and economic philosophy. He is also a VIP at the Center for Philosophy and Ethics of Health. Nielsen holds a PhD in Political Philosophy and Health Ethics from Aarhus University (2010-2013) and defended his dr.phil dissertation 'A New Theory of Sufficientarian Justice' at the University of Southern Denmark on December 12, 2025. Prior to his current role, he served as Postdoc and Assistant Professor at Aarhus University's Department of Political Science and Government.

His research specializations encompass moral and political philosophy, with a focus on distributive justice—particularly sufficientarianism—health care priority setting, health inequality, the ethics of extreme wealth, discrimination, stereotypes, immigration, and the value of childhood play. Nielsen has secured major funding from the Independent Research Fund Denmark, notably DKK 6 million for the project 'The Morality of Extreme Wealth' (2025, in collaboration with David Axelsen) and DKK 3 million for research on inequality in health (2024). He received the Djøf-Forlagsprisen in 2017 (shared with D. Axelsen). Key publications include his forthcoming monograph A New Theory of Sufficientarian Justice (Cambridge University Press, 2026); 'Health sufficientarianism and health inequality' (Journal of Medical Ethics, 2026); 'Having enough of a say' (Economics & Philosophy, 2026, with A. Bengtson); ''It's a gender thing': the wrongdoing of stereotype articulation' (The Journal of Politics, 2026, with M. Cecchini); and 'Pandemic prioritarianism' (Journal of Medical Ethics, 2022). Nielsen has contributed as editor to the Special Issue: Nationalism and Rationality (Danish Yearbook of Philosophy, 2022) and delivered guest lectures at international conferences, such as on 'Market Discrimination' (2025) and 'Health Sufficientarianism' (2024). His scholarship has advanced theoretical frameworks in sufficientarianism and applied ethics, influencing discussions on justice in health and wealth distribution.