Research profile

Birgitte Andersen is associate professor at BUILD - Department of the Built Environment at Aalborg University in Copenhagen and leads the research group Fungi and Problematic Substances.

She is a civil engineer in biotechnology from the Technical University of Denmark, DTU and a PhD in mycology also from DTU. Birgitte is doing research into the susceptibility of building materials to fungal growth at high humidity and water damage. She focuses on both recycled wood-based materials (e.g. paper wool, gypsum wallboard and OSB) and the alternative organic or biogenic building materials (e.g. straw, hemp, eelgrass and flax) and work in close collaboration with the research group Building Physics.

Birgitte has more than 30 years of experience with the negative aspects of fungal growth and toxin production in food, agricultural plants and buildings. She is an expert in the identification of fungal growth and the preferences of different fungal species to different building materials - especially biogenic materials.

At BUILD, she researches different methods to detect fungal growth in buildings and investigates the moisture requirements of the individual fungal species and which building materials they prefer. In addition, she teaches on the Master's in Building Physics at BUILD in Copenhagen, is a guest lecturer at DTU and a consultant on the website skimmel.dk managed by Lenette Aalling.

Furthermore, Birgitte has published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles in international journals about fungi and their toxins in buildings. She is a peer reviewer for a large number of international journals and is also co-author of one of the most widely used textbooks on fungal spoilage of food and indoor climates (Food and Indoor Fungi. Samson RA, Houbraken J, Thrane U, Frisvad JC & Andersen B (2019). Westerdijk Fungal Biodiversity Institute).

PhD Supervision

Birgitte is PhD supervisor for Evangelia Loukou on the project "Udvikling og validering af metoder til at finde skjult skimmelsvampevækst".

Teaching profile

Birgitte underviser på AAUs masteruddannelse i bygningsfysik og er gæsteforelæser på DTU.