Category: Person
In the Days of the Big Nano (pun not intended) Prizes
The local Nano-day was arranged today as previously announced on this channel – starting with oral presentations for the Nano100 students and finishing off with a public show of the posters that document their learning outcomes from a semester as interns in a research group. 
As usual, the competition for the honour as best poster in show was a close one, but with Ida and Morten as the unrivalled winning duo. Well done — to them and their fellow students!
It is fitting to point out that yesterday, the winners of the 2018 Kavli Prize winners in Nanoscience were officially announced. Quoting the Kavli foundation, The Kavli Prize in Nanoscience is awarded for outstanding achievement in the science and application of the unique physical, chemical and biological properties of atomic, molecular, macromolecular and cellular structures and systems manifested in the nanometer scale. This year, the prize was awarded for the invention of CRISPR-Cas9, the revolutionary nanotool for editing DNA, shared by Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Max Planck Society, Jennifer A. Doudna of the University of California, Berkeley, and Virginijus Šikšnys of Vilnius University.
Velkommen Cecilie!
Cecilie Evjen har nylig blitt ansatt som forskningskoordinator/rådgiver, og skal dele dagene sine mellom Kjemisk Institutt og IFT. Hennes bakgrunn er en uvanlig kombinasjon av human toksikologi, prosjektledelse og entreprenørskap. Hennes forskningsinteresser har tatt henne fra laboratorieforskning innen nanoteknologi til studier på forurenset drikkevann i Nord-Tanzania – og mange ting i mellom!
I Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi koordinerte Cecilie et grunnforskningsprogram som er et samarbeid mellom industri og akademi. De siste par årene overtok riktignok eventyrlysten, og hun seilte i en tradisjonell norsk seilskute rundt hele Amerikas kontinent. Isen og havet fascinerte henne, og hun dro derfor til Antarktis for å jobbe på større båter og i felt med pingviner og hvaler som en del av arbeidsdagen.
Tilbake i Norge, bestemte Cecilie seg for å flytte til Bergen og bli kjent med forskningen og menneskene på UiB. Her vil hun bistå forskere på Kjemisk Institutt som søker finansiering fra for eksempel Forskningsrådet eller Horisont 2020. Snakk med henne dersom du planlegger en søknad om ekstern finansiering!
Congrats dr. Coralie!
Today Coralie Celine Quadri successfully and with stamina defended her PhD thesis, titled N-Heterocyclic Carbene Complexes of Titanium as a Novel Class of Catalysts for the Copolymerization of Cyclohexene oxide with CO2. She has spent a couple of years away from the department writing up her thesis, which made for nice reunions on this joyous event.
Congrats dr. Kjersti!
Kjersti Hasle Enerstvedt successfully and confidently defended her thesis on home turf (Tripletten) today. Her PhD project and now, thesis, Analysis of polyphenolic content in marine and aquatic angiosperms from Norwegian coastal waters, is an important step in furthering chemistry with a marine focus at the Chemistry department.
Markus blir postdoc ved Institutt for Biomedisin
Markus Baumann har mastergrad i farmasi fra Tromsø og doktorgrad i organisk syntese og legemiddelkjemi fra UiB i 2016.
Han ansettes som postdoc i gruppen til Thomas Arnesen ved Institutt for Biomedisin med delt arbeidssted mellom Institutt for Biomedisin og Kjemisk institutt, der han skal jobbe i gruppen til Bengt Erik Haug. Stillingen er finansiert gjennom et FRIPRO Toppforsk stipend fra Norges forskningsråd til Thomas Arnesen. Markus skal jobbe på prosjektet ‘N-terminal acetylering som en fysiologisk nøkkelregulator.
Congrats Dr. Audun!
It is a pleasure to congratulate Audun Drageset on his presentation and defence of his PhD project and thesis today! 
Welcome to professor Nathalie Reuter!
As announced last Friday, professor Nathalie Reuter will join the department starting from July 1! She is an outstanding scientist with a long record of achievements and fruitful collaborations including some with colleagues at our department. To exemplify, she leads the BIOTEK2021 project Novel drug candidates for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease treatment, which includes Bengt Erik (PI) and Åsmund (researcher). Many of you attended her TCLS lecture last November, on exploring the binding of soluble proteins to biological membranes by means of molecular simulations and experiments. We will learn more about her research interest in the years to come, as she contributes to shape molecular life science as one of the main strategic axes at the department. Her background includes a PhD (1999) from the renowned Université Henri Poincaré, Nancy, postdoc in theoretical chemistry at the Max-Planck Institut für Kohlenforschung, Mülheim, followed by a period as researcher at Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale (INSERM, Strasbourg). She was hired at the Computational Biology Unit (CBU) at UiB in 2003, first as service scientist and then advancing into position as leader of her own research group, before running successfully for a BFS candidate-ship in 2009 and eventually promoted to full professor at MBI in 2013. In short, you are most welcome, Nathalie!
Andrey disputerer
Andrey Bezrukov disputerer 16. mars 2018 med avhandlingen: ‘Development of metal-organic frameworks with hydroxyl and phosphine functionalities for potential applications in adsorption and catalysis’
Welkom Lore!
Lore Coenegrachts has joined the chemistry department (Le Roux research group) as traineeship exchange student from the University Colleges Leuven-Limburg (Belgium). During her short stay in Bergen, she will investigate the chemistry of N-heterocyclic carbene complexes of group 4 as potential catalysts for the coupling of unsaturated polar substrates with CO2. Her project is directly linked to the CO2-CaRD project: Rational catalyst design for transforming CO2 into industrially attractive products: Formic acid, polycarbonates and polyurethanes.
Energy director Kristin Gulbrandsen Frøysa
The current UiB strategy «Ocean, Life, Society» (2016-2022) identifies Climate and energy transition is one of three committed strategic areas. By creating clusters, forming centers, increasing interdisciplinary cooperation, and including external partners, UiB will try to mark itself as one of Europe’s strongest university in climate and energy transition. 
Dr. Kristin Gulbrandsen Frøysa, the newly appointed energy director, will together with the academic management at the our faculty, have overall responsibility for leading the energy part of this interdisciplinary focus area. The Director of Energy will be responsible for organizing and leading cooperation on research, education and innovation across the field and the faculties – both locally, nationally and internationally.
Kristin has background as senior researcher at CMR and director of the Norcowe FME. Since 2016 she has held an adjunct associate professorship at the Geophysics institute and contributed greatly to the EnergyLab construct.
Energy is an important field of study at our department and we look forward to working together with Kristin!