Natural hackmanite paper spreads everywhere

It seems that the natural hackmanite article published in Chemistry of Materials has spread wider than we could ever imagine. It has now been found in 17 different sources from 5 different language regions throughout the world, and there will probably be even more during the coming months.

Check the links from this list:

https://inorganic.utu.fi/about-us-in-other-media/

Congratulations Cecilia and Sami!

The first paper for Cecilia and Sami was just accepted for publication in Chemistry of Materials. The paper is entitled “Hackmanite – the natural glow-in-the-dark material” and it will be published soon in open access.

Great work from Cecilia, Sami and the truly multidisciplinary international collaborator group!

Photo by Adefunke Koyejo.

Hannah wins best poster award at FyFa symposium

The 31st symposium of the Finnish Society of Physical Pharmacy (FyFa) was held on February 13th–14th, 2020 in Hotel Arthur in Helsinki. IMC’s representation consisted of Adj. Prof. Mika Lastusaari in the arranging team and PhD student Hannah Byron giving both an oral and a poster presentation.

Everything went exceptionally well, and Hannah also won the Finnish Pharmaceutical Society’s best poster award (200 €)!

The theme of the symposium this year was Trends of Thermoanalytical Methods in Materials Characterization, and Hannah’s topic was Thermoluminescence of hackmanites produced using a zeolite-free method.

Hannah giving her oral presentation Thermoluminescence of hackmanites produced using a zeolite-free method. Photo by João Pedro Martins.
Photo by João Pedro Martins.
Hannah invited on stage for the best poster award by the chairpersons of FyFa, Emma Hokkala, and FinTAC, Vesa-Pekka Lehto. Photo by João Pedro Martins.

Introducing our new MSc students

The bright new MSc students of the IMC group have started their research projects of this year. Otto Rouhio, Teppo Kreivilä and Kirsi Miller have completed their BSc studies at the IMC group and are eagerly continuing their studies here.

Otto Rouhio, Teppo Kreivilä and Kirsi Miller.

To the question “Why did you choose our group over others?” Kirsi answers that she wants to create new materials with interesting properties and improve the already existing ones.

Kirsi conducting experiments.

We warmly welcome Otto, Teppo and Kirsi to be a part of our group!

Collaborative project GlowTrack gets 3-year funding

Academy of Finland has selected five projects to be funded in the call to promote international collaboration under the RADDESS Academy Programme. One of the projects is the GlowTrack consortium led by our Adj. Prof. Mika Lastusaari and co-led by Assoc. Prof. Laeticia Petit and Assoc. Prof. Jonathan Massera from Tampere University. This high-impact project focuses on developing implants that are both bioactive and have red or NIR persistent luminescence.

The overall funding amount for the five projects is 12 million euros, with 2 million euros directed towards projects promoting international collaboration. 470 775 euros are allocated for GlowTrack, and the University of Turku’s share is 232 711 euros, making 49.4 % of the project’s funds. The project will be funded from January 1, 2020 through December 31, 2022.

The news in Finnish:
https://www.utu.fi/fi/ajankohtaista/uutinen/turun-yliopiston-johtamalle-glowtrack-konsortiolle-rahoitusta-suomen

In English:
https://www.aka.fi/en/about-us/media/press-releases/2019/academy-of-finland-funds-international-research-collaboration-in-radiation-detectors-with-two-million-euros/

Ninth grade students’ visit

Today morning Isabella led a group of ninth grade pupils and showed them what kind of business we do here. The demonstrations included an XRF analysis, afterglow, luminescence spectrometry and a combustion reaction. In addition to the nice chemistry demonstrations, the pupils were generally interested about how to study in a university. They are all going to a gymnasium after the secondary school, and hopefully we will see some familiar faces around here after that!

The pupils with Isabella in the X-ray analysis laboratory.

Anna from Turku Vocational Institute

In addition to the motivated BSc students introduced in the last post, we have had the honour to have student Anna Koleshnikova, supervised by Mika, Isabella and Emilia, from Turku Vocational Institute (Turun ammatti-instituutti) conducting her on-the-job learning period with us since the beginning of August. She has used and learned a plethora of instruments and analysis techniques, including measuring hackmanites with a luminance meter, a thermoluminescence reader, XRF, XRD, a thermogravimeter and a portable spectrometer. She has also learned to synthesize NaYF₄ via a solid-state reaction route.

Anna Koleshnikova.

Anna will be working in our team until October 7, after which she will continue her studies at the vocational institute. We want to thank Anna already at this point for helping us in conducting measurements both effectively and untiringly!