On Friday, Jan 10, 2020 we held the kickoff meeting for the Academy of Finland-funded GlowTrack project in the beautiful city of Tampere. We were warmly welcomed by the people of Tampere University: we had a tour in the laboratory facilities, discussed about ice hockey and had a mutual agreement on how to proceed with the project. We will eagerly be executing it in collaboration with the Tampere team.
Our PhD student Esko Salojärvi had a big step towards his PhD dissertation as he had his first article published recently. The article’s information can be found below:
Salojärvi, E., Peuronen, A., Huhtinen, H., Vlasenko, L. S., Halme, J., Mäkinen, P., Lastusaari, M., Lehtonen, A. “NIR-absorbing transition metal complexes with redox-active ligands” Inorg. Chem. Comm. 112 (2020) 107711.
Read online: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.inoche.2019.107711
Good work, Esko!
Yesterday on 11th December Minnea Tuomisto had her dissertation in Arcanum Arc1 auditorium. The opponent was Associate Professor Sarah McCormack from The University of Dublin, and Adjunct Professor Mika Lastusaari held the position of the custos.
After the dissertation Minnea hosted her post-doctoral party in the restaurant Koulu with a ceremonial dinner.
Congratulations, Minnea!
This doctoral dissertation basking under the solar lamp will play a great role on Wednesday when MSc Minnea Tuomisto will defend her thesis with the subject Upconverting luminescent materials for solar energy conversion. The event is open for all and will be held in the Arc1 auditorium on Wednesday 11th Dec at 12:00. Welcome!
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.
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.
We warmly welcome Otto, Teppo and Kirsi to be a part of our group!
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
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!
We have now created an Instagram account for the IMC group! Please like, share and follow!
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 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!
A fresh new academic year has started with some fresh new people: the motivated BSc students had a flying start, rolling their lab coat sleeves already at the beginning of September and having their work done quickly and effectively. Me, Isabella and Ari are supervising their work, which luckily doesn’t require much overseeing since the students are smart and super self-directing. We warmly welcome Nina, Samu and Saara to carry out their BSc labs here at IMC.
