Month: september 2016
MOF@Bergen receives recognition
In the past 20 years, metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) have become one of the most active areas of research within inorganic chemistry. EurJIC is acknowledging the rapid development with a Cluster Issue on «MOFs Heading Towards Application». Our own Pascal Dietzel and Hiroshi Kitagawa from the University of Kyoto are guest-editing this issue, which contains more than thirty papers spanning the breadth of current activities in the leading research groups in the field.
Leftovers from this weeks info-Thursday
Most of our lunch hour went into interesting discussions about Scenario2030, and here are some keywords on subjects that only got to the outline:
- HSE: The noisy repair work at the roof, soil hats, drains and in the light shafts will continue until week 5, 2017
- HSE: Sound-proofing of the NMR/MRI lab is complete and has proven very effective!
- PatentPak will soon be included with SciFinder. We have reached a deal whereby we give up Ullmann´s encyclopedia and Kemi (magazine from the Swedish chemistry soc.) and the library supplies a corresponding sum to cover the full cost of PatentPak.
- John Georg Seland will be acting chair of the chemistry education board (programstyreleiar) for the study year 2016/17.
- The Board of the Chemistry department recommended today that the department move forward and applies for the establishment of an integrated master program in medical technology
- Policy change on pc’s: The department will offer a standardized stationary office pc to incoming PhD and postdoc candidates. However, if there is project funding and acceptable rationale for other choices, the department will offer a fixed-sum contribution toward alternative solutions.
- Policy change on fixed phones: We aim to terminate fixed-phone leases for most offices used by students and staff on temporary contracts. A dedicated «phone booth» will be made available for communal use.
Kjersti goes to Forsker Grand Prix!
Kjersti made a marvelous performance at the Bergen final in Forsker Grand Prix last night, demonstrating outdoor sampling gear, her sea weed collection, chemical structures and contagious enthusiasm. A worthy representative for chemistry – we are impressed! This event is part of Forskningsdagene – a yearly week devoted to science – and next year You will have opportunity to compete in FGP. Challenge accepted?
Nytt laboratorium for peptidsyntese
Ved Kjemisk institutt er det etablert et nytt laboratorium for automatisert peptidsyntese. Laboratoriet ledes av Professor Bengt Erik Haug, og etableringen har vært mulig takket være finansiering fra Bergens Forskningsstiftelse. Haug og gruppen hans er svært fornøyde med å få på plass moderne instrumentering for automatisert syntese og effektiv opprensing av peptider. Den nye lab´en vil gi et løft for forskningsaktiviteter rettet mot studier av biologisk aktive peptider ved UiB.
Laboratoriet har allerede vært benyttet av ansatte og studenter ved Kjemisk institutt, Molekylærbiologisk institutt, Senter for farmasi og Institutt for biomedisin. Tilgang til effektiv peptidsyntese og ikke minst muligheten for fremstilling av modifiserte peptider er aktuelt for en rekke forskningsprosjekter ved UiB. Laboratoriet vil blant annet bli benyttet for fremstilling av peptider for anvendelse innen positron emisjons tomografi (PET) i samarbeid med PET-senteret ved Haukeland Universitetssykehus. Mer informasjon om laboratoriet finnes her.
Reduced support for Open access articles
The University Board has reduced the financial support for publishing Open Access (OA) articles. From Oct 1, OA articles in subscription journals on level 1 are no longer covered by the publication fund. Corresponding authors to OA articles in level-2 journals may apply for reimbursement of 50% of the article processing charges. Consult the complete guidelines, or contact bora@uib.no.
Bienvenida a Sara!
After spending time in the most stunning landscapes of Norway last year, Sara Barranco Campos, a BSc student from Madrid, decided to join the Le Roux group for an Erasmus internship of 9-months. Ms. Barranco is greatly enthusiastic about working on the development of new bifunctionalized N-heterocyclic carbene of group 4 as catalysts for the copolymerization of epoxides with CO2 . Her project is a part of GreenCAT-project – “Design of Green Catalysts for the Conversion of Renewable Resources into Polymers”, funded by the Research Council of Norway.
Kvalheim featuring Chenchen’s thesis on regional television!
As many will know, Chenchen Lin successfully defended her PhD thesis last week. Her work forms part of the research effort of professor Kvalheim and coworkers, within metabolomics. An important application is within the treatment of obesity, and Chenchen’s findings in this respect were recently featured in Vestlandsrevyen!
Ethics in research – follow-up on Leiv’s talk 14d ago
Formally a part of the regular course MNF990 Theory of Science and Ethics, today (Wednesday 21 September) there will be a mini seminar series with three eminent lecturers on ethics in science.
Location: Biologen (Thormøhlens gate 53b), B-blokken, room K3/K4 (1H19/1G19) .
At 10.15-12 – Andrea Saltelli on Responsible Quantification.
At 12.15-14 – Roger Strand on Responsible Research and Innovation.
At 14.15-16 – David Gee on Conflicts of Interest in research.
You are all welcome to attend one or several of these lectures.
Note also that there will be an early evening lecture in Egget (at the Student Centre) on Climate numbers and climate wars. A fatal attraction? Andrea Saltelli lectures at Wednesday 21 Sept 16.15-18hr
Dr Lin
Chenchen Lin successfully defended her PhD thesis today. The thesis title is Multivariate analysis of human serum fatty acid profiles and a popular-science summary is provided in Norwegian here. Dr Lin has been supervised by Olav Kvalheim and Svein Mjøs. Congratulations to all involved and most of all to Chenchen herself!
Lunch meeting Today: trial run at the 850 MHz
Det b
lir først en kort samling i 3069 (inkl. kaffi) før vi går samlet ned til Thormøhlens gate 55A for en omvisning i det nye NNP-bygget. Dette er en utmerket anledning til å teste det nye spektrometeret. Ta med en prøve i et standard 7″ NMR-rør og indiker hvilke eksperimenter du ønsker og eventuelle parametere så kjører vi prøven. Fra i dag og til kommende mandag vil 850 MHz spektrometeret kjøre IconNMR og vil være tilgjengelig gratis for brukere ved Kjemisk institutt. Hilsen Jarl, José og Olav