In last month’s Tiede (Finnish for science) magazine, Professor Mika Lastusaari was interviewed about hackmanites. In the newest issue (11/2022) Mika answers the question “where does the color of an element originate?“
https://www.tiede.fi/artikkeli/kysy/mista-alkuaine-saa-varinsa
Meet Ella-Roosa Suni, familiarly Ellis. She’s a third-year student currently doing her BSc lab work where she synthesizes luminescent nanoparticles. Ellis’ hobbies include riding horses, outdoor activities, baking, and having boardgame evenings with her friends.
Our newest hackmanite article is out! Sami’s second article concerning gamma radiation effects on hackmanite was published in Materials Horizons (impact factor 15.717) last week, Professor Mika Lastusaari being the corresponding author.
The article shows that gamma radiation induces hackmanite’s typical pink coloration and thus the material can be used to quantify radiation doses, but also that the high-energy radiation deforms the color center so that the reflectance spectrum shows additional signals, meaning that hackmanite can be used to identify the radiation quality. And last but not least: hackmanite also remembers exposure to gamma radiation even if it has been totally bleached to its original white color. This was a very nice and unexpected finding.
The article was an international cooperation of several institutions: University of Turku, University of Lyon (France), Tampere University, Swedish Defence Research Agency FOI, University of Jyväskylä, Turku PET Centre, and Mineralogical Society of Antwerp (Belgium).
The article can be found here:
Introducing Melanie Wals, a BSc exchange student from the University of Regensburg, Germany. She’s in her third year and staying for this semester in Ari’s group, focusing on metal-organic syntheses. On her free time she plays soccer and likes to cook and bake together with her roommates.
Meet Leonnam Merízio, our newest postdoctoral researcher. He obtained his PhD from the University of São Paulo, Brazil in 2019 and is a researcher at São Carlos Physics Institute, working with persistent luminescent glasses and nanomaterials. Now, as part of his post-doctorate, he is working at UTU for one year. Some of his hobbies include practicing Tae Kwon-do, observe the moon and the planets with a telescope and hang out with friends.
Today chemistry department’s alumni Ilkka Vuorio came by to photograph us for his project that will be public in the art museum of Salo in the near future. IMC’s Sami and Sinna are in the photos.
Meet Douglas Fritzen who obtained his PhD a month ago from the University of São Paulo, Brazil and is now on a short visit at our chemistry department, but will be back next year for two years. His hobbies include taking care of plants (his friends say that he has a green finger), practicing kung fu, and taking pictures of his cats!
We wish you a nice, relaxing Midsummer 2022!
Our paper about photochromism in natural minerals was just published in the prestigeous PNAS journal! Big credit is due to the computational wizards from Lyon as well as our collaborators in Antwerp and UTU Physics.
Read online:
Happy International Workers’ Day 2022! Hauskaa vappua!