Great News I: FRINATEK grant to Deryn Fogg et al.
Prof. 
Deryn Fogg and partners have won a grant by The Research Council’s funding scheme for independent projects (FRIPRO) for the project: «Water-tolerant catalysis: Boosting chemical biology, medicine, and sustainable chemical manufacturing».
Water-tolerant metal catalysis holds enormous promise for applications in chemical biology, medicine, and sustainable chemical manufacturing. The present project is aimed at developing high-performing, water-tolerant metathesis technologies capable of realizing this promise. A diverse team of experts stand behind the project which unites outstanding experimental and computational strengths in olefin metathesis, in catalyst and ligand design, and in the synthesis of challenging molecular targets that represent highly desirable new drug classes. In addition to the project leader, Prof. Deryn Fogg, local partners are Vidar Jensen, Giovanni Occhipinti, Marco Foscato, Jarl Underhaug and Karl Törnroos. Congratulations to all contributors!
The event of the season, the chemistry Christmas party, was every bit as much of a success this year as it has been the two preceding years.The turn-up of joyous and party-minded chemists, the variety of tasty dishes, the vocal presentations of the Off Ke(y)tones, the shrewdness of the Quizmaster, and not least, the excellent news about projects granted — it all lived up to and surpassed expectations and made this a memorable evening! Special thanks and recognition for excellent services rendered are due to the Nanomodeling and Theoretical chemistry group – Vidar (at the helm and in charge of the toasting), Giovanni, Morten, Christian, Sven, Immanuel, Sondre, Jonas, Fredrik, Leif, and Marco, and fortified by Erwan (for the occasion, master of the welcome drinks).
Reminder: The first Tuesday of the month is BTO-day, and Victoria and Maja will be here from 12 o´clock – at your service!
Etter meir enn 30 år på Kjemisk institutt, kom Nina sin siste arbeidsdag hos oss i dag. I går hadde vi ei god samkome kor instituttet fekk uttrykke kor mykje Nina har kome til å bety både for alle oss som har og har hatt vårt dagleg virke her, for studentar og gjester som har hatt Nina som møtepunkt med Kjemisk institutt, og spesielt for nære arbeidskollegaer innan administrasjonen ved instituttet. Vi ønskjer Nina lukke til med tilveret som pensjonist!
This year the Nobel Prize in Chemistry was divided, one half awarded to Frances H. Arnold «for the directed evolution of enzymes», the other half jointly to George P. Smith and Sir Gregory P. Winter «for the phage display of peptides and antibodies.» Prof. Torgils Fossen, gave a very well-prepared and insightful lecture on the subject of this year’s Nobel prize. After the lecture it was party time with seafood, refreshments and good company counting chemists at all ages from bachelor and upward.
Hele SI-systemet har vært til revidering, og hensikten har vært å knytte alle definisjoner til universalkonstanter (fundamentale fysiske størrelser som har samme verdi under alle forhold, og som ikke endrer seg over tid). Hovedenhetene som har fått nye definisjoner er: