Born on 4 January 1942 in
Rudkøbing on the island of
Langeland, Marianne Bruun is the daughter of Alfred Johannes Bruun, a schoolteacher, and Karen Marie Nielsen, a nurse. An only child, she was brought up on Langeland but attended high school at
Svendborg on
Funen where she met Gustav Schroll whom she married in 1965. Thanks to outstanding marks in her school leaving exams, she received a scholarship which enabled her to study medicine at
Aarhus University, graduating in 1968. In 1968, she gave birth to her first child, Kirsten, followed by Bodil (1970), Anders Ditlev (1972) and Marie Elisabeth (1975). Schroll's research and her promotion of dissertations and doctoral theses have provided significant support for improving the understanding of the physical and mental requirements of older people, This has been reflected in her international contributions, including leadership of the
World Health Organization's MONICA project on
cardiovascular diseases (1982–1992). She was president of the 11th Nordic Gerontology Congress (1992) and the Second European Congress on Nutrition and Health in the Elderly (1996). In 1991, she was honoured as an interRAI Fellow after participating in European Congress of Gerontology in
Madrid. She has also served on the board of
Danmarks Statistik (1991–1998) and on the Interministerial Committee on Research into the Elderly (1997–1999). ==Selected publications==