Ruth Frikke-Schmidt is professor at the University of Copenhagen and Chief Physician at Rigshospitalet, Copenhagen, Denmark. She has been Chairman of the Scandinavian Society for Atherosclerosis Research (SSAR), and has been member of the EAS Executive Committee. She is a member of steering committees for the Copenhagen General Population Study, the Copenhagen Baby Heart Study, and the European Alzheimer & Dementia Biobank. She is serving as chair of the EAS Award Committee and was chairman of the Scientific Programme Committee for the EAS 2020 Congress. She has contributed to and organized EAS Advanced Courses. Early on RFS performed a series of papers on central lipid transport proteins, apoE and ABCA1. By using a series of genetic strategies in large general population samples, novel concepts for understanding common and rare genetic variants in lipid metabolism were generated. The work from her and her colleagues on the genetic background for HDL cholesterol had major impact on drug-development in the field. Subsequently, she leveraged her knowledge from peripheral lipid metabolism into neurodegenerative diseases, where local lipid transport is emerging as a key player. The Frikke-Schmidt group established apoE levels as causal factors for dementia in large scale genotyping and resequencing efforts and developed a 10-year absolute risk score for dementia which illustrated the substantial impact of preventable/treatable cardiovascular risk factors for risk of dementia.