Kjemi-nytt — Kva skjer ved Kjemisk@UiB.no?

Flott formidling på NRK radio

Mange har fått med seg at 19 personar fekk lettare problem med pustesystemet etter å ha blitt eksponert for tåregass på Sletten senter.  Det dreier seg truleg om CS-gass, 2-klorbenzalmalonitril.

Hendinga har vekt interesse for kva som karakteriserer ein gass og kva eigenskapar gassar kan ha. NRK radio fekk i dag svært god hjelp av Bjørn Grung til folkeopplysning om gassar generelt og gassar brukt som stridsmiddel. Du kan lytte til intervjuet her – del 6 og 7.

I tillegg til folkeopplysning og deling av fagkunnskap er dette fin presentasjon av Kjemisk institutt og UiB. Veldig bra – og noko som vi gjerne kan bidra oftare med!

Got an innovative idea?

Since 2010, BTO and Sparebanken Vest have invited researchers to join the Idea Competition. The competition aims to stimulate commercialisation of research results, enhance the environment that contributes to innovation, and to create attention for the importance of research and innovation. Researchers and staff, incl. phd. students and post.docs, can submit their ideas, either as individuals or as a group. 

The winner receives 500.000 NOK to further development of the idea. All ideas will get professional help from the BTO team to further development – exciting opportunities that can walk hand-in-hand with your academic plans! Please consult this page for further information on the competition and the application procedure. Note the deadline: October 25.

Quiz

Here is a quiz question for a wet week-end: What is smiling, making big leaps in the corridor, and carrying 5 thick books?

The answer: A PhD student on the way to handing in a thesis for evaluation!

Installation of the new 600MHz NMR instrument well under way

Installation of the new, long-heralded 600 MHz NMR-instrument has started! According to Jose, the magnet is already correctly mounted in the NNP-lab. In the picture, you can see it to the left of its big cousin, the 850 MHz instrument. 

A pump is creating the vacuum in the dewar over the weekend, and we will start cooling the magnet with liquid nitrogen and helium on Monday. After that, the exciting process of energising is starting on Wednesday, and the magnet will probably be «on field» on Friday. We are looking forward to it! Hopefully, we will not talk about Quench… Next week the last system modules will be installed: the cryo-platform, the console and the sample-jet. The system acceptance is planned by November 3rd and we are planning a grand opening on November 16!

Our old and from-time-to-time troubled 600 MHz instrument will be taken off field starting on Monday.

Impressive FGP appearance

Last Thursday, the regional Researcher’s Grand Prix competition was held at Campus Kronstad, with Sondre (re)presenting chemistry. Sondre was the last contestant to take the floor in the initial round and he delivered a brilliant and highly visual presentation of his PhD project – how to get from algae lipids to α-olefins. It was particularly impressive to see the ease with which he dehydrogenated an alkane to introduce the double-bond functionality — with the precision of a needle point! The crowd was even more impressed than the jury and voted Sondre to a top-three position! Fellow students and friends from the Chemistry department made a loud and suitably biased supporter crowd — great! Who will rise to the challenge and continue the great tradition set by Kjersti (last year) and Sondre?

SOS Mexico

To help the victims of the two recent earthquakes that have devastated Mexico, Ivan and other members of the Mexican community in Bergen will be throwing a fund raiser tomorrow Saturday 23, at the restaurant Amarone in Østre Skostredet 12, from 2 to 6 pm. They will be selling food and organizing other family activities and all earnings will be donated to the Mexican Red Cross. More information on the Facebook page of the event. 

Seminar om patentering – 27. sept.

Chemists in Leiden for the ‘Write it Right’ workshop

Scientific writing is a major work in any research. All PhDs, postdocs, researchers and professors have to write manuscripts, proposals, books and much more. Gadi Rothenberg’s “Write it Right” course focuses on how to organize a manuscript to maximize its clarity and impact. Seven participants from our Department attended this two-day course held in Leiden (Holland) on September 6-7. They were asked to submit a two-page manuscript that was reviewed by the instructor and used as basis for exercises during the workshop. Each participant worked to improve his own manuscript and acted as peer reviewer for the others. The participants are very positive about the content and the trainer.

From the left to the right in the picture: Raju, Anamitra, Giovanni, Puia, Ivan, Marco, and Sondre.

Sondre til Forsker Grand Prix

FORSKER GRAND PRIX 2017

Forsker Grand Prix er en formidlingskonkurranse der 10 forskere får fire minutter hver til å engasjere publikum og dommere. I år som i fjor er Kjemisk institutt godt representert — denne gang ved PhD-student Sondre!

Forsker Grand Prix arrangeres i Bergen 27. september i Mimes Brønn på Høgskulen på Vestlandet, Campus Kronstad. Dørene åpner kl. 18.00. Showet starter kl. 19.00.  Du kan få billetter her. Bidra til å heie frem Sondre!!