(TCLS= Thursday Chemistry Lunch Seminar: 12.15-13 @ Tripletten
For ALL employees at the Chemistry Department!
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!
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).
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!
Reza Talandashti is a new PhD student in the Reuter group. He will be working with molecular simulations of membrane-associated proteins. The goal of his PhD project is to describe the conformational changes associated to lipid uptake and release mechanisms of selected lipid transfer proteins. Reza holds a Masters degree in nanobiotechnology from University of Tehran in 2019.
The 15th edition of European Molecular Imaging Meeting (EMIM) was held during the last of week of August (in a virtual edition, obviously), with Elvira García de Jalón Viñegra among the participants. She is a PhD student with prof. Emmet Mc Cormack at Department of Clinical Science (K2) and a full-blown member of the Haug research group in medicinal chemistry at our department. Elvira was granted an oral contribution in the session on New Tools for Cancer Imaging, with her paper on Repurposing 18F-FMISO for clinical PET/CT imaging of nitroreductase gene directed enzyme prodrug therapy. Her science and presentation of it impressed the jury to the extent that she was selected for the «best-lecture-of-the-session» award! Quoting the proud prize-winner, «I am the type of person that does not give up until I get to understand things.» This is an extremely useful strait in a researcher – we offer our congratulations!
Forskningsrådet tilbyr et skreddersydd, virtuelt opplegg for å bistå offentlige aktører, forskningsmiljøer og NGOer til å finne rett match for Horisont 2020 Green Deal-utlysninger. Deltakelse på disse matchmaking-dagene er god forberedelse også for deg som planlegger å finne internasjonale partnere under European Research and Innovation Days 22.-24. september.
Om Green Deal
I 2020 lyser EU-Kommisjonen ut ekstraordinære midler gjennom Horisont 2020 for å nå målene i Green Deal – EUs ambisiøse veikart mot et nullutslippskontinent. Pakken med utlysninger har en verdi på ca. 1 mrd. euro. Utlysningene legger vekt på tverrsektorielt samarbeid for å nå målene.
Program Mandag 7. september
MSc. Hilde Vik Halleraker delivers her lecture over given topic as partial fulfilment of the requirements for the ph.d. degree.
Title: . Biofuels: Status, challenges and perspectives.
Time. Friday September 4th, at 10.15–12.00
ZOOM – se Kjemisk Institutt Teams for lenke.
The presentation will be evaluated by the following committee: Drs. John Georg Seland, Jarl Underhaug, and Hege Ommedal.
Abstract: Biofuels that are produced from biobased materials are in many cases good alternatives to petroleum based fuels, and are beneficial to society and the environment. Both fresh and waste biomass can be used as raw material for the production of biofuels. However, challenges with respect to processing steps in converting biomass to liquid transportation fuel like pretreatment, hydrolysis, microbial fermentation, and fuel separation still exist. This lecture gives an overview of the general and specific chemical properties of different biofuels and their sources, with a particular emphasis on the pros and cons of different chemical reactions involved in the production technologies.
Chemical abstract service has given access for users at the chemistry department to their new platform Scifinder-n. The trial period lasts through the rest of this year. You can log in using the same username and password as for Scifinder. Log in at https://scifinder-n.cas.org.
Til informasjon: I forbindelse med service på brannvarslingssystemet på Realfagbygget vil det på fredag den 14-08-20 bli testing av BRANNKLOKKER i tidsrommet mellom kl. 07 – 08. Det vil være en pulserende ringing som ikke skal responderes på. Dører som står åpne på magnet vil også lukkes i dette tidsrommet. Spørsmål kan rettes til driftstelefon 55589393. Hilsen Driften v/ Svein Fosse
On Friday Aug 14 at 10.15, Jørgen Gausdal Jacobsen delivers his trial lecture for the PhD degree, with the title Comparison of energy sources and transport alternatives using life cycle assessment.
Location Zoom. The meeting is set up with a waiting-room function due to the security regulations for ZOOM meetings. The moderator gives access to the participants manually. The entrance closes when the lecture starts. Therefore, please, log into the meeting a few minutes before 10.15. Welcome!
Abstract: The search for energy sources with higher energy efficiency and lower environmental impact has increased rapidly in recent years. This has led to the development of new approaches to calculate the net energy gain of different energy sources and transport alternatives. In the lecture key factors such as energy payback ratio, energy efficiency, sustainability, etc. are introduced and defined. These parameters will be used to compare life cycle energy gain and consumption for different energy sources including a discussion of CO2 footprint, degree of renewability and sustainability. Specifically, power sources such as hydro, wind and solar will be compared to hydrocarbon gas and coal. The lecture will be assessed by Tore Skodvin (leader), Tanja Barth og Bjarte Holmelid.