(TCLS= Thursday Chemistry Lunch Seminar: 12.15-13 @ Tripletten
For ALL employees at the Chemistry Department!
Kristoffer Herdlevær has accepted a position as research fellow / PhD candidate at our department and will conduct research toward «Utilization of woody biomass and residues for production of energy products and high-value natural compounds.» This project addresses basic research challenges in the different steps of biomass treatment and use to provide a validated basis for developing a lignocellulosic woody biomass biorefinery that is suitable for the conditions specific to Western Norway. This is a strategic and interdisciplinary PhD project within the UiB priority research area
Climate and energy transition.
The project constitutes a
collaboration between the departments of Chemistry and Biosciences. Kristoffer Herdlevær holds a master’s degree in process technology from UiB. He will be supervised by Tanja Barth (Chemistry) and UNESCO Chair for Sustainable heritage and environmental management Inger Elizabeth Måren (Department of Biosciences).
Hun forsvarer avhandlingen «Large-scale conversion of lignin to liquid through formic acid assisted solvolysis in aqueous and ethanolic reaction media: comparison of yields and product compositions«.
Tid og sted: 17.01.2020, kl. 10:30. Stort Auditorium på Høyteknologisenteret.
I en fersk artikkel i Forskning.no skrevet av Øystein Rygg Haanæs, slår Tanja Barth fast at mye av det vi i dag bruker sort karbon fra olje og gass til å lage, kan i stedet baseres på grønt karbon fra trær og andre planter.
Raffineriet på Mongstad. (Foto: Marius Dobilas / Shutterstock / NTB scanpix)
Forskningsgruppen til Tanja har utviklet en prosess som omdanner ligninet fra tremasse til bioolje, som ikke må forveksles med biodrivstoff. Økonomisk sett vil det være gunstigere å ta ut så mye som mulig i form av spesialkjemikalier som kan brukes i parfyme, medisiner, løsemidler og lignende. Deretter kan vi utvinne råstoff til bioplast, før resten går til drivstoff, som nok er det området som kaster minst av seg. Én nøkkel til raskere og økonomisk mer håndterbar overgang fra fossilt til fornybart kan derfor være å lage bioraffinerier etter modell av dagens oljeraffinerier.
Huge thanks to Louise, Egil, Hege, Marit and possibly others for making such a bright Lucia spot in the middle of a December-gloomy Friday. Totally unexpected, half-mystery invitation, and then the tastiest Lussekatter you ever dug teeth into, and beautiful gitar and song. Thanks again for sharing with your colleagues and adding to the working environment!
Ludvik Espeland has joined the Department of Chemistry as PhD-student in organic synthesis and drug chemistry. He is funded by UiB's strategic program on global societal challenges.
Ludvik holds a master's degree in chemistry from UiB (2019). 
He will work on the project "Inhibitors of bacterial fatty acid synthesis" where the goal is to identify inhibitors of the enzyme FabF, which is an important enzyme in the fatty acid metabolism of bacteria and thus can form the basis for development of new antibiotics. Ludvik will be supervised by Bengt Erik Haug, Jarl Underhaug and Ruth Brenk (Department of Biomedicine).
Lakshmi Suresh recently joined our department as a PhD student. She will be working with Assoc. Prof. Erwan Le Roux on organometallics and catalysis with a strong emphasis on tailor-made catalysts for the copolymerization of epoxides with CO2. She completed her integrated MSc in Chemistry from Pondicherry University (India) in 2019, and was awarded a scholarship for «Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research» (INSPIRE) conferred by the Government of India from 2014 to 2019. She also was a research intern at Indian Institute of Space Science and Technology (IIST) in 2017.
The party organizers would like to thank everyone for a splendid Christmas-pot-luck-party! Thanks to all 61 attendees who joined in singing the Chemistree Carols, contributed to a variety of exciting dishes, and gave your all in the Christmas quiz!
Wishing you a pleasant Christmas celebration and an exciting and challenging new year! Best regards from Eirin, Frida, Louise, Beate, Nina, Markus, Zeeshan and Bengt Erik
Yesterday’s chemistry pot-luck Christmas party was great fun and a big success, clearly matching previous year’s events and even surpassing those in attendance! A clever and well-received novelty was to precede the party by an hour of sampling of seasonal products from ABC (the Alchemy/Academic Brewing Company) – thanks guys! 
Huge thanks are obviously due to Bengt Erik and his crew of organic synthetic chemists: Eirin, Frida, Louise, Beate, Nina, Markus, and Zeeshan. They made such a big effort to the benefit of all of us attending the party and, by facilitating a shared and joyous evening and thus adding to the working environment; to everybody at the department. The variety of tasty dishes was only met by the variety in challenges presented by Quizmaster Bjørn – the photo of the winning team was shot before the virtual nature of the prize was revealed.
Thanks to the enthusiasm and know-how of Monica, Karianne and Unni LB, the Department of Chemistry is now proudly launching our own instagram account. The purpose is to attain increased visibility to and interaction with prospective and present students, with glimpses from research and life as a student at our department. Please navigate your browser to https://www.instagram.com/kjemisk_uib/ and log-in, sign-up, follow or whatever you like. Please also supply Karianne with photos and comments to add to this stream, and cross-post and tag as you see fit.
Årets Nobelfest ble en stor suksess! Over 30 deltakere stilte for å få med seg det spennende foredraget om årets Nobelprisvinnere i kjemi som førsteamanuensis Yansong Zhao fra Høgskulen på Vestlandet holdt, samt for å ta del i den påfølgende festen med skalldyrsmiddag – eller chili sin carne for dem som ønsket et vegetariansk alternativ – og noe godt i glasset. Det ble god stemning med musikk og Nobelfestquiz etter middagen. Du er hjertelig velkommen til å bli med — om ett år! Fotograferende referent: Beate H.