From top athlete to full-time researcher at DCPT
25.05.2023
Morten Sahlertz just won the Danish basketball championship with his team, Bakken Bears, for the seventh time in a row. The final was the team captain’s last game of his career, and now he is dedicating his time to research.
Being a forward and team captain, 34-year old Morten Sahlertz has played a major role in the Aarhus basketball club, Bakken Bears. He has played 13 seasons in the local club and helped win 10 championships in the basketball league.
‘It was kind of bittersweet to say goodbye. I had made the decision during the season, and it feels like the right time. At the same time, it also feels like the end of a normal season, so I will probably realize it more after summer, when the new season begins,’ says Morten Sahlertz.
He is concluding his sporting career with a final national championship, and now he is dedicating his professional life to a totally different arena as part of associate professor Jasper Nijkamps group at the Danish Centre for Particle Therapy.
After getting his Master’s degree in computer engineering in January this year, he started as a research assistant working on machine learning for automation within radiotherapy – a continuation of a fruitful collaboration on his master’s project.
‘In professional sports, we learn the value of hard work and that really fosters a winning mentality. I think this is something I carry along with me, now working within machine learning and always motivated to optimise’, explains Morten Sahlertz.