Category: Hendingar
Disputation ceremony for Marie Wekre
On Friday September 1, MSc Marie Emilie Wekre defends her doctoral thesis for the ph.d. degree. You are welcome to sit in to learn about the research project and to follow the scientific discussion!
Vital coordinates: 10.30 in Auditorium 2 (Science Bld).
Extracts from the press release: The world’s population is growing and the demand for new raw materials for food, medicines and other foodstuffs is increasing. Macroalgae, also known as seaweed and kelp, play an important role in marine ecosystems and have great potential for sustainable exploitation. One of several classes of compounds that can be extracted from algae are polyphenols. Polyphenols constitute a large and diverse group of natural molecules that have many positive health effects and serve important functions in reproduction and protection in plants and algae. Much less is known about polyphenols in algae as opposed to land plants. Due to the nature of algae, it is also challenging to extract, isolate and quantify polyphenols from algae.
In this PhD project, improved methods for characterizing polyphenols from seaweed and kelp are developed, and new information on the polyphenol content in macroalgae is shown to be useful for commercial exploitation – as well as of value for chemical ecology and ocean monitoring.
Pop-sci’cles at the University Museum: Ludvik, Illimar, and medicinal chemistry
Our wonderful world – young scientists tell
Research is to be open, accessible and responsible. Popular science dissemination plays a decisive role in engaging society in research. Join us and enjoy research from Digital Life Norway at the University Museum in Bergen! This evening the floor is left to a group of young researchers who explore our wonderful world and use biotechnology to find innovative solutions to today’s major societal challenges. Among those are Ludvik Olav Espeland, who is pursuing a PhD at our department, and dr. Illimar Rekand, who shared his research time between Dept Biomedicine and Dept Chemistry as he obtained his PhD.
Time and place: Sep. 6, 2023 6:30 PM – 8:00 PM, Universitetsmuseet i Bergen (Forhandlingsrommet)
Congrats to dr. Stian!
Last Friday, Stian Hersvik Hegdahl’s dissertation ceremony got a semi-frenetic prologue as it became evident that one of the opponents was stuck and would not get to Bergen in time! Thanks to Stian himself, our PhD-advisor Torill and considerable and hard-earned experience from the Covid years, a fully satisfactory hybride format of the ceremony was rapidly concocted. After Stian had presented highlights from his thesis «From waste to bio-oil: Hydrothermal liquefaction of digested sewage sludge in small and large scale», dr Patrick Biller, Aarhus University, examined the candidate for over an hour from Kastrup and from the big screen in Auditorium 1. Opponent dr. Joseph Samec, Stockholms Universitet, physically present, continued the examination, and Stian continued answering promptly and clearly. The evaluation committee, including both opponents and local member Øyvind, approved of the performance. The newly minted philosophiae doctor Stian and main supervisors Tanja and Camilla were all pleased and happy as well! Our congratulations to Stian and thanks to all contributors with assigned roles as well as all those showing up in the lecture hall!
Congrats to The Catalysts – UiB Champs in the national Bike-to-work campaign
At the conclusion of this spring’s national Bike-to-work campaign, chemistry and chemists are standing tall with impressive results both at the individual level and even more in terms of team spirit! Among UiB teams, The Catalysts, featuring Marius, Vidar, Marit, Pascal, and Pål, climb to the top of the podium at UiB and placed 6th nationally, with the second chemistry team, Good Chemistry, rolling in to a very nice 10th position among UiB teams! Individually, Reidun made her way to the second place and winner of the silver medal — great work by her and the family dog! På Høyden published a very nice article on the achievement (in Norwegian only), with selected quotes given below.
Head of admin, Pål, has been the driving force behind chemistry’s participation in this yearly and national campaign, and he is also one of the five pedal pumpers on the winning team.
– It feels fantastic and well-deserved, says Pål. Our team name refers to an important field of research within the department, and is also an uplifting and motivating name. We have resisted temptations such as relaxing weekends and taking the bus to work in pouring rain. The team effort has been phenomenal. As a relatively new employee at the Department of Chemistry, the competition has given me the opportunity to get to know my colleagues better.
UiB as a company was number 228 out of 2,647 participating companies in Norway, compared to 383 out of 3,208 last year.
A total of 9,904 sessions and a total distance of 42,995 km were recorded by UiB employees. Last year, 40,300 km were registered.
Follow Stian defending his thesis!
On Friday June 16, at 12.00 in Auditorium 2, Science Bldg, MSc Stian Hersvik Hegdahl will defend his thesis «From waste to bio-oil: Hydrothermal liquefaction of digested sewage sludge in small and large scale.»
Å utnytte avfallsprodukter på en bedre måte, kan gjøre oss mindre avhengige av råolje, noe som er et nøkkelpunkt for å redusere CO2-utslippene i atmosfæren.
I denne avhandlingen brukes avfallsproduktet kloakkslam etter anaerob utråtning (utråtnet kloakkslam) som råstoff i en studie for å produsere produkter med høyere verdi. Som prosess benyttes hydrotermisk omdanning, som er en depolymeringsprosess brukt for å produsere bioolje fra kloakkslam ved hjelp av høy temperatur og høyt trykk. Det er gjort en systematisk tilnærming ved gjennomføring av hydrotermisk omdanning på utråtnet kloakkslam ved bruk av eksperimentelle design for å bestemme hvordan de forskjellige resultatene påvirkes ved justeringer i variablene som brukes. Disse resultatene innebærer blant annet oljeutbytte, karbongjenvinning, og forholdstallene hydrogen/karbon og oksygen/karbon. I tillegg er de produserte biooljene analysert for å bestemme sammensetningen av oljene, for igjen å finne industrielle bruksområder for oljen.
Master presentations June 12.-16.
All our master exams include the candidates presenting their projects and project results. These presentation are open to everybody to attend and you are hereby encouraged to do so when it fits in! Here is a list of presentations coming up next week:
Anders Emil Stange (Chemistry) presents his thesis “Carotenoid content in algal epiphytes: A qualitative and quantitative DAD-HPLC analytical study” 12th of June at 11:00 in room 3069 (Tripletten)
Alexander Osland Ehamparam (Integrated Teacher Programme in Science and Mathematics) presents his thesis: “Ein kvalitativ studie av dialog mellom elevar og lærar rundt praktisk arbeid i kjemi” 12th of June at 10:00 in auditorium 3.
Kristin Watnedal Olsen (Medical Technology) presents her thesis: “PD-1 Receptor Occupancy Assay for Mass Cytometry” 13th of June at 10:00 in meeting room 25.1 and 5.2 in the Lab building at Haukeland University Hospital
Yacine Saada (Chemistry) presents his thesis “D – ∆ν – correlations in MRI for mapping wettability changes in porous media” 14th of June at 10:15 in room 3069 (Tripletten)
Adila Alim (Pharmacy) presents her thesis “Multifasettert analyse av stabilitet og reologiske egenskaper i forbindelse med formulering av karbamidkremer” on 16th of June at 13:30 in room 3069 (Tripletten)
Masterseremoni 2023
På fredag (2. juni) var Aulaen fyllt med bachlor- og masterstudentar som fullfører sine grader i inneverande studieår. Etter lunsj hadde det matematisk-naturvitenskapelige fakultetet invitert alle studentar som har fullført eller kjem til å fullføre ein mastergrad studieåret 2022/2023 til årets masterseremoni. Seremonien er ei feiring av våre flotte ferdige kandidatar, med taler, musikk og pomp og prakt! Eit fast innslag i seremonien er utdeling av diplom, og utdanningsleiar Monica stod for dette på vegne av Kjemisk institutt.
Foto: Kjetil Ullaland
Department Lecture by professor Kyoko Nozaki
The Department Lecture given by professor Nozaki today, on Catalytic Hydrogenolysis of Carbon–Oxygen and Carbon–Nitrogen Bonds toward the Effective Use of Unutilized Carbon Resources, was a pure gift and source of joy to any chemically inclined person! She underscored that there many new chemical reactions to be discovered and developed, to provide a basis for a sustainable society!
Prof. Nozaki is a world-leading researcher in homogeneous catalysis and is renowned for her pioneering and transformative contributions to organic and polymer synthesis processes spanning from fundamental discovery, insight, and method development to sustainable industrial application of materials and processes. She also enjoys the synthesis of beautiful molecules. She was the first female professor to be hired at Tokyo University’s School of Engineering. Her brilliance has been recognized through numerous international awards.
Congrats to dr. Louise
The evaluation committee, including opponents Dag Erlend Olberg and Nina Kann, newly minted philosophiae doctor Louise Bergsjø Sand, and main supervisor Bengt Erik Haug were all pleased and happy about Louise’s performance today! Our congratulations to Louise and thanks to all contributors with assigned roles as well as all those showing up in the lecture room!
Follow Louise defending her thesis!
On Thursday May 25, at 10.30–13.00 in Auditorium 2, Science Bldg, MSc Louise Bergsjø Sand will defend her thesis «Synthetic studies toward [18F]-fluorination of solid-supported silyl ethers». In this work, the foundations have been laid for a new method for 18F radiolabelling of peptides and other biologically relevant molecules. In addition, peptide-based tracers for PET imaging have been prepared. 
A number of different silyl ethers have been prepared to investigate fluorine-initiated breaking of silicon-oxygen bonds for radiolabeling of biologically relevant molecules. Synthesis of silanes and chlorosilanes with different substitution patterns has laid the foundation for further stability studies and exploration of fluorination conditions. The preparation of Si-O bonds was challenging for the sterically hindered di-tert-butyl analogues, while for the diisopropyl analogues silyl ethers with varied functionality on the aromatic ring (azide, aldehyde, ethers) were made. One silyl ether analogue was immobilized on the solid phase and fluorinations of both non-immobilized and immobilized precursor were successful. Testing of [18F]-fluorination of the solid-phase precursor at the PET center at Haukeland University Hospital gave promising results. Further studies of reaction conditions are necessary to be able to illuminate the full potential of the method.
Three peptide-based tracers suitable for studying activation of the immune system have also been prepared. These contain various chelators that can be coordinated to metallic radioisotopes. The three precursors will be radiolabeled with [68Ga], and potentially [64Cu], and will be studied further by our partners in Tromsø.
Personnel
Louise Bergsjø Sand (b. 1992) holds a master’s degree in chemistry (UiB, 2016). The doctoral work has been financed by UiB and the Trond Mohn Foundation, and the project has been carried out at both the Department of Chemistry at UiB and at the PET center at Haukeland Hospital (HUS). The main supervisor has been Prof. Bengt Erik Haug (Department of Chemistry, UiB) and co-supervisors have been Ole Heine Kvernenes (PET center, HUS) and Emmet Mc Cormack (K2, HUS).