Category: Person
Welcome to Leah!
Hi, my name is Leah Kristen Rai and I am from India, Chennai, Tamilnadu.
I am a passionate Chemist with my Bachelors from Stella Maris College and Masters in Inorganic Chemistry from University of Madras. My area of interest is mainly on catalysis, and I also have experience with computational analysis and experimental work. I worked as Junior Research Fellow for a brief period at Anna University in the project “Production of JP-8 range fuels and chemicals using nanostructured catalysts” (DST Indo-Norway project). My other activities include travelling, photography, drawing…………….. and I am a lover of nature and animals.
Looking forward to pursue my research at UiB with confidence and perseverance!
Update on Biogas research at TCLS this week
TCLS this week focused on Biogas; the gas mixture of methane (50-70%) and carbon dioxide (50-30%) that many of the local buses use for fuel. Assoc. Prof. Vasan Sivalingam and PhD-student Gudny Flatabø visited from Department of Process, Energy and Environmental Technology at the University of South-Eastern Norway (https://www.usn.no/english/about/contact-us/employees/vasan-sivalingam), and Vasan presented his research on how to advance methane yield in biogas by integration of fermentation of syngas (mixture of H2, CO2 & CO) and microbial electrosynthesis (MES). In return, Stian Hegdahl, phd-student at our department, explored and explained how to wrestle bio-oil from residues from the biogas production. He also exemplified the fate of pharmaceutical drugs when exposed to conditions needed for hydrothermal conversion of feedstock to make Bio-Oil.
Congrats to dr. Ingrid!
Last Friday, Ingrid Schiager Skinnarland successfully defended her thesis «Investigations of intermediates and byproducts formed in an industrial process – structure elucidation and mechanistic studies» for the degree of ph.d. She has been an enterprise phd-student («nærings-PhD») at our department, and her project has been carried out both at GE Healthcare Lindesnes Fabrikker and at the Department of Chemistry. She has been supervised by Prof. em. Leiv K. Sydnes and Dr. Torfinn Håland. We congratulate!
Congrats, dr. Illimar!
On September 15, Illimar Rekand successfully defended his thesis «Structure-based Druggability Predictions of RNA Binding Sites and Design of RNA Ligands» for the ph.d. degree. Illimar has a background in organic synthesis from our department, and the PhD project was carried out at the departments of biomedicine and chemistry. His supervisors have been profs. Ruth Brenk and Bengt Erik Haug. We extend warm gratulations!
Congrats, Dr Frida!
On September 16, for the first time since Covid-19 made its entry, a fully physical and normal dissertation ceremony was held at the department of chemistry. On this happy day, Frida Johanne Lundevall, engineer and PhD-student at our department, successfully defended her thesis «Synthesis and Method Development of Silver N-Heterocyclic Complexes as Cytotoxic Agents» for the degree of ph.d. The best of gratulations to the new doctor in town!
Welcome, Kangkang!
Kangkang Wang is a PhD candidate recruited for the CompFish project at the Xinjiang University. He is conducting a one-year exchange stay at the Department of Chemistry, UiB. 
During this period, he is going to study adsorption of organic pollutants on microplastics and develop new analytical method for quantitively evaluation of microplastics in fish tissues. His research will answer the following questions about microplastics: (1) what is the adsorption mechanism of dyes on nylon microplastics; (2) is there differences for fresh microplastics and aged ones on the adsorption behavior; (3) how does the adsorption affect by the sizes of microplastics; (4) if fluorescence and GPC can be used to quantify microplastics in fish tissue.
Welcome to our new Research Advisor and PhD Coordinator, Torill Andersen Eidsvaag!
Bergenser og UiB alumn. Jeg har en bachelor i fysikk fra UiB og en master i forskningsformidling fra University of the West of England i Bristol. Jeg har jobbet ved UiB i snart åtte år, først i studieseksjonen ved MN-fakultetet og de siste tre årene som koordinator for UiB sin havvindsatsning, Bergen Offshore Wind Centre (BOW). I studieseksjonen har jeg jobbet hovedsakelig med vitnemål og internasjonalisering. Ved BOW har jeg hatt mange roller og vært med på å bygge opp senteret sammen med faglig ledelse. Jeg brenner for å skape gode rammer og godt miljø rundt forskning og utdanning og jeg gleder meg veldig til å bli kjent med dere på Kjemisk institutt!
Bergenser and UiB alumnus. I have a bachelor’s in physics from UiB and a master’s in research communication from the University of the West of England (UWE) in Bristol. I have worked at UiB for almost eight years, first in the study section at the MN faculty and for the last three years as coordinator for UiB’s offshore wind initiative, Bergen Offshore Wind Center (BOW). In the study section, I have mainly worked with diplomas and internationalisation. At BOW, I have had many roles and helped to build up the center together with professional management. I am passionate about creating good frameworks and a good environment around research and education and I am very much looking forward to getting to know you at the Department of Chemistry!
Vennlig hilsen Torill
Welcome, Amalyn!
I´m Amalyn, From Venezuela. I´m a passionate chemist, and I´ll be teaching advanced organic chemistry (KJEM231) during the Autumn. My research interests are design, synthesis and evaluation of bioactive small molecule that can be used as probes for mechanistic studies or lead compounds for drug discovery. I´m also interesting in practicing science communication, hiking, and practice some sports.
Velkomen til Marius
Hei, eg heiter Marius og er ny studiekonsulent på Kjemisk institutt. Eg administrerer BA og MA programma i nanovitskap og siving. programmet i medisinsk teknologi. Eg har mastergrad i samanliknande politikk frå UiB og har tidlegare jobba som studiekonsulent på Sosiologisk institutt. Når sola skin er eg ofte å finne på eit av byfjella saman med kona og barna mine, og når det regnar sitt eg gjerne heime og les ei god bok. Eg ser fram til å bli betre kjent med dokker
Welcome, Jan-Åke!
Please give a warm welcome to our new fellow scientist Jan-Åke Husmann, who is a new member of Bengt Erik Haug’s research group at the Department of Chemistry. His work will be focused on the project «Exploration of the TPP riboswitch as a new target for antibiotics» funded by the Joint Programming Initiative on Antimicrobial Resistance (JPI-AMR) in collaboration with Ruth Brenk’s group at Biomidicine at UiB. Jan-Åke holds a Master and Bachelor degree in Biomedical Chemistry from the University of Mainz (Germany).