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Dept. of Chemistry scientists on the 2PCT list
In October last year, John P. A. Ioannidis at Stanford University (widely renown for his 2005 PLoS Medicine paper «Why Most Published Research Findings Are False.») and his co-authors published a science-wide author database of standardized citation indicators based on the Scopus database. This has resulted in a list of the top 2% of the most-cited scientists in various disciplines, totalling 160,000 names including almost 1,000 researchers at Norwegian institutions. Five of them are affiliated with our department, and we congratulate our colleagues on the distinction! An interesting aspect is that only two of them (prof. Olav Kvalheim and prof. em. Rolf Manne) are shortlisted in the field of chemistry (in their case, analytical chemistry), while profs. Jeroen van der Sluijs, Øyvind M. Andersen and Tanja Barth have climbed the ranks within Environmental sciences, Plant biology and botany, and Energy, respectively. Chemistry comes in all flavours! More on this topic in Khrono.
Velkommen til Solveig!
Solveig Bakke Vasstveit er tilsatt i administrasjonen ved Kjemisk institutt, med primæroppgaver knyttet til bestillinger. Solveig har hatt i ulike stillinger innen administrasjon og resepsjon på GEO, MN-administrasjonen og MI. Hun studerte på UiB og tok hovedfag i kvartærgeologi i 1996, og jobbet deretter mange år i oljen med overvåking i Nordsjøen, på land med borekroner og vedlikehold av dokumenter i styringssystem.
Seminar Dec 1: Biogas – green fuel from organic waste
KI takes home the HSE prize for 2020
At the faculty-wide HSE seminar today, the Dept of Chemistry was awarded the HSE prize for 2020, on account of our systemic work on infection-controlling routines and training, making it possible to pursue in a safe manner, experimental laboratory-based research and running all scheduled laboratory courses according to plans, in the face of the ongoing pandemic.
Congratulations to all of us!
Velkomen, Charlotte!
Arbeidet blir utført ved forskningsgruppen Marin toksikologi ved HI. Charlotte har master i miljøkjemi/analytisk kjemi fra UiB, og masterprosjektet ble utført ved HI og omhandlet å finne effekter av og tålegrenser for oljeforurensning hos fiskeegg.Welcome, Dr. Roy!
Dr. Tamal Roy has joined as a postdoc (3 years) in the Le Roux group. He will be working on developing radiotracers based on 45Ti for PET imaging in collaboration with the Bergen Tracer Development Centre (Bergen-TDC) financed by the Trond Mohn foundation. The goal of the project is to develop suitable water soluble and hydrothermally stable 45Ti complexes.
Tamal did his PhD from CSIR-CSMCRI, India in 2014 in the area of synthesis of chiral epoxides and their derivatives. Later he spent several years in Sweden (KTH, Uppsala) and Denmark (Copenhagen) as a postdoctoral researcher. His research experiences include asymmetric catalysis, method developments, organometallic chemistry, medicinal chemistry and development of PET tracers for β cell imaging.
Insightfull movie about gender inequality in science – at the Bergen Int’l Film Festival this weekend
Gender inequality is a topical issue in science. The movie Picture a scientist, appearing on the BIFF program for Saturday and Monday, makes a powerful and insightful presentation of how this affects the career of individuals. IMDb-rating of 8.2 / 10. UiB employees may purchase tickets at a reduced rate, at only 55 NOK. On the Monday show, our colleague at the Dept of Biosciences, Dr. Dorothy Dankel, introduces the movie and puts it into a wider context. Recommended!
Nobel prize in Chemistry to Crispr/Cas9
The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences has awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2020 to Emmanuelle Charpentier (Director of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens, Berlin) and Jennifer A. Doudna (Professor at the University of California, Berkeley) “for the development of a method for genome editing.” The method in question is CRISPR/Cas9, the importance of which can hardly be overestimated. 
Prior to 2020, 183 individuals had been awarded the Nobel prize in chemistry (counting Frederick Sanger once despite him being awarded twice). There were only five female laureates: Maria Skłodowska-Curie, Irène Joliot-Curie (1935), Dorothy Hodgkin (1964), Ada Yonath (2009) and Frances Arnold (2018). Approaching the end of a year where the chemical societies have seen the need to stress the importance of equality in the chemical sciences and work places, it is well worth drawing attention to the fact that this year’s Nobel prize is split between two eminent female scientists (both of whom are younger than the writer of this column).
Congrats Dr. Jørgen!
Photo: JGJ
Tuesday this week, MSc Jørgen Gausdal Jacobsen successfully and convincingly defended his thesis Mechanistic Modelling of Radial Polymer Flow in Porous Media for the degree of philosophie doctor, in a lively dissertation defense ceremony @ Zoom. The press release (only available in Norwegian) may be found here. Jørgen has been employed at Norge during his PhD studies. Congratulations, and all the best for your next career move!