Arne Jørgen Aasen (born October 15, 1939) is a Norwegian chemist and professor emeritus at the University of Oslo (UiO), School of Pharmacy. Aasen received his engineering degree in biochemistry and organic chemistry in 1964, and a doctorate (dr. ing.) in organic chemistry in August 1966 from The Norwegian Institute of Technology, Trondheim (NTH, renamed in 1996 to Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NTNU). In 1972 he defended his thesis for a doctorate (tekn. dr.) at The Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, Sweden.
In 1972 Arne Jørgen Aasen was appointed as unpaid associate professor ("oavlönad docent") in organic chemistry at KTH, Stockholm. Three years later Aasen was employed as dosent in general and pharmaceutical organic chemistry at School of Pharmacy, UiO, where he, except for two periods, was a member of the staff until his retirement in 2007.
In 1979 Aasen became a professor in organic chemistry at the University of Tromsø (UiT), Department of Chemistry, and in 1983 professor in chemistry at the Norwegian College of Agriculture (NLH; from 2005: Norwegian University of Life Sciences, NMBU), Institute of Chemistry, Ås. He was an employee at UiT and NLH for two and five years, respectively. Aasen returned to UiO, School of Pharmacy in 1988 as professor in his previous field. Arne Jørgen Aasen was appointed professor II in natural products chemistry at UiT, School of Pharmacy from 1996 to 2007.
Arne Jørgen Aasen has held a number of research positions abroad. He was a research scientist with Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) in Melbourne, Australia, postdoctoral fellow and research associate at The Hormel Institute, University of Minnesota, Austin, Minnesota, USA, and research scientist at the Research Department of Swedish Tobacco Co., Stockholm, Sweden. He has also been visiting professor at ARCO (Atlantic Richfield Company) Plant Cell Research Institute, Dublin, California, USA, and at Nycomed Salutar Inc., Sunnyvale, California, USA.
Aasen´s research areas include determination of the absolute configurations of racemic drugs, isolation, structural determination and syntheses of natural products, e.g. carotenoids and pyrrolizidine alkaloids, mass spectrometry of specifically deuterium-labelled wax esters, fatty acids and triglycerides, and identification of flavour constituents from tobacco and other plants.
Arne Jørgen Aasen was from 1979 to 1981 responsible for the establishment of a section for organic chemistry at University of Tromsø. During the period 1989 to 2002 Aasen was head of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, School of Pharmacy, UiO.
Aasen has participated in about twenty lawsuits dealing with drugs and patent infringements either as an expert co-judge of Borgarting Court of Appeal, the District Courts of Asker and Bærum, Follo, and Oslo, or an expert for one of the parties in Norway and in New York, USA. He has since 2000 been consultant for the Norwegian registries of drugs used in human and veterinary medicine.