Click- chemistry wins the Nobel prize
The Nobel prize this year is split equally between K. Barry Sharpless (Scripps Research, USA), Morten Meldal (Københavns universitet) and Carolyn R. Bertozzi (Stanford U., USA); the two first for laying the foundations of click chemistry, and prof. Bertozzi for putting it to good use in mapping living cells.
The principle of click chemistry is illustrated in the scheme, ”© Johan Jarnestad/The Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences”. The reaction between an azide and an alkyne, in the presence of catalytic amounts of copper, produces quickly and without byproducts the corresponding substituted triazole, even in water and in the presence of air.
For a pop-sci introduction to this fascinating topic, please go here. A more in-depth exposition is to be found here.
It should be mentioned that this is prof. Sharpless´ second Nobel prize in chemistry. He also won in 2001, for his contributions to the development of «broadly useful and commercially viable catalytic oxidation chemistry for the selective production of bioactive chiral molecules.»
The two centra were opened and celebrated in a common 
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!
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!
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!
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!
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.