14th and 15th of November October 2024:
Taltech Chemistry department held a two-day chemistry doctoral conference. Representing our group, Jevgenija Martõnova and Thi Thanh Ngan Nguyen gave presentations.
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Jevgenija Martõnova (sup. Riina Aav) "Monitoring Solid State Synthesis with Powder XRD: Imatinib Synthesis and Interlaboratory Study"
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Thi Thanh Ngan Nguyen (sup. Riina Aav and Jasper Adamson) "Functionalization of Chiral Hemicucurbiturils with Fluorescent Dyes"
14th of November October 2024:
Riina Aav participated in the discussion "Future Trends in Energy and Industry" at the Fair Transition Forum on November 14th at Narva College. The panel also featured Andri Haran, CEO of the Estonian Association of Mechanical Engineering, Einari Kisel, Professor of Practice in Energy Policies at the FinEst Centre for Smart Cities, and Karl Kruusamäe, Associate Professor of Robotics at the University of Tartu. The discussion was moderated by Allan Niidu, Professor at TalTech's Virumaa College.
17th of October 2024:
We are proud to announce that our group member, Tatsiana Jarg, has successfully defended her doctoral thesis titled 'Mechanosynthesis of Hemicucurbiturils and Their Complexation: An Analytical Study.' Congratulations, Tatsiana, and best wishes for a bright future ahead!
We would also like to extend our gratitude to the opponents, Prof. Ivo Leito from the University of Tartu and Assistant Prof. Kaisa Helttunen from the University of Jyväskylä, for their valuable insights and the time they dedicated to thoroughly evaluating both the candidate and the thesis.
9th of September 2024:
Professor Riina Aav served as the opponent for Yonglei Lyu's PhD defense at the University of Turku, Finland.
2nd to 6th of September 2024:
Our PhD student Elina Suut-Tuule and Professor Riina Aav participated in the "Summer School on Organic Synthesis under Non-Classical Conditions" held in Warsaw, Poland. The event was organized by the Institute of Organic Chemistry, Polish Academy of Sciences, and brought together 150 scientists.
7th to 10th of July 2024:
This summer, our team had an exciting time at the Balticum Organicum Syntheticum 2024 in Riga from July 7th to 10th!
Tatsiana Jarg presented a poster titled "LC-MS Profiling of Dynamic Covalent Library During Mono-Biotinylated Hemicucurbit[8]Uril Solid-State Synthesis".
"In addition to the outstanding presentations from the invited speakers, it was very nice to see some old friends who I met at other conferences."
Thi Thanh Ngan Nguyen presented a poster titled "Synthesis of a Novel Monofunctionalized Hemicucurbit[8]Uril".
"BOS24 was a great experience, featuring exceptionally inspiring presentations from speakers and providing me with constructive feedback and insights during poster sessions."
Riin Satsi presented a poster titled "Mechanochemical Birch Reduction With Low Reactive Alkaline Earth Metals" and won the poster prize ACS Org Process R&D/Omega Chemistry Awards.
Reflecting on her experience, she said, "My first conference, BOS2024, was a valuable learning opportunity, as it had enlightening presentations from great speakers, and I got to experience presenting a poster of our work."
Congradulations to Riin!
30th of June to 11th of July 2024:
We are proud to announce that our group member Jagadeesh Varma Nallaparaju has been awarded best poster award at two prestigious conferences: the 18th Belgian Organic Synthesis Symposium (BOSS XVIII) in Liège, Belgium, and the 9th EuChemS Chemistry Congress (ECC9) in Dublin, Ireland! Jagadeesh was the only attendee from Estonia at both events.
Jagadeesh presented his research titled "Shaking-Up Metal Mediated Organic Reactions Using Ball Mill", which was selected among over 320 posters in Belgium and more than 600 posters in Ireland.
"I truly enjoyed and was inspired by the lectures from leading scientists across various fields, particularly lectures by noble laureates Prof. Frances H Arnold and Prof. David MacMillan."
Congratulations to Jagadeesh for his outstanding achievements and for representing our group on such prestigious platforms!
20th of June 2024:
From June 17 to June 21 we were happy to host already second time Prof. Izabella Jastrzębska from University of Białystok, Poland. Izabella gave two exciting talks regarding her work with steroids and molecular rotors that sparked interesting discussions and possible collaboration ideas. We are looking forward for the next visits!
6th and 7th of June 2024:
We held our annual summer seminar on the beautiful island of Saaremaa, Estonia’s largest island.
During our visit, we explored the impressive Kaali meteorite crater, the charming city of Kuressaare, and TalTech Kuressaare College.
In addition to our explorations, we had a productive group seminar where everyone shared innovative ideas and recharged for the months ahead.
4th of June 2024:
Congratulations! Ander Mägi defended his bachelor thesis with mark "Excellent"! His thesis was on chiral sensor materials. The thesis was higlighted by the defence committee!
Photo: Ander Mägi with his supervisor Marko Šakarašvili.
4th of June 2024:
Congratulations! Erik Kirs defended his bachelor thesis with mark "Excellent"! His thesis was on synthesis of chiral material.
Photo: Supervisors Elena Prigorchenko, Thi Thanh Ngan Nguyen and Erik Kirs in the centre.
4th of June 2024:
Congratulations! Eve Schults defended her bachelor thesis with mark "Excellent"! Her thesis was on mechanochemical synthesis.
3rd of June 2024:
Congratulations! Rauno Reitalu defended his master thesis with mark "Excellent"! His thesis was on modelling of host-guest complexes.
15th of April 2024:
Research in Estonia highlighted our recent work on mechanochemical Birch reduction: https://researchinestonia.eu/2024/04/15/metals-for-a-sustainable-future/
Photo: The authors researching the mechanochemical Birch reaction with calcium and magnesium (J. V. Nallaparaju, R. Satsi, D. Merzhyievskyi, D. G. Kananovich, T. Jarg, R. Aav) and a key instrument used in their study – a shaker mill. Author:Marharyta Laktsevich-Iskryk
2nd and 3rd of May 2024:
Taltech Chemistry department held a two-day chemistry doctoral conference. Representing our group, Nele Konrad, Elina Suut-Tuule, Marko Šakarašvili and Kristjan Siilak gave presentations.
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Nele Konrad „Chiral Sensing Materials from Porphyrins“
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Elina Suut-Tuule „Biotin[6]uril Mechanosynthesis“
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Marko Šakrašvili „Chiral Hemicucurbituril and Porphyrin Complexes“
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Kristjan Siilak
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5th of April 2024:
Our work on mechanochemical synthesis of imatinib was featured on Royal Society of Chemistry YouTube channel.
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18th and 19th of April 2024:
Riina Aav and Nele Konrad attended the 1st Global Action Meeting of the LUCES COST Action. Riina gave an oral presentation titled "Homomeric and Chimeric Hemicucurbiturils," while Nele presented a poster and a flash talk titled "Chiral material composed of hexakis(Zn-tetraphenylporphyrin)-D-biotin-L-sulfoxide[6]uril and silica nanohelices."
26th of March 2024:
Our work on mechanochemical synthesis of imatinib was featured in IMPACTIVE blog post: https://mechanochemistry.eu/2024/03/26/mechanochemistry-could-provide-a-safer-and-greener-route-to-anticancer-drugs/
22nd of February 2024:
Our team received recognition from TalTech: our article on mechanochemical Barbier reaction was selected as "Best Research Article of the Year" in Natural, Exact and Health Sciences.
On the photo: D. Merzhyievskyi, T. Jarg, R. Aav, D. G. Kananovich. J. V. Nallaparaju, T. Nikonovich.
6th of February 2024:
Our group member Tatsiana Nikonovich successfully defended her PhD thesis “Mechanochemical C–N Bond-Forming Reactions and Their Application in Pharmaceutical Synthesis” Well done, Tatsiana! We are wishing you a bright future! We are also thankful to the opponents, Prof. Carsten Bolm and Prof. Lauri Vares, for their invaluable insights and the time dedicated to thoroughly examining the PhD candidate and the thesis.
2nd and 3rd of February 2024:
We held our winter group seminar in Laulasmaa, where each grop member presented their research. During the event, we also visited the Arvo Pärt Centre and explored the Keila waterfall.
14th and 15th of November October 2023:
Taltech Chemistry department held a two-day Chemistry PhD conference. From our group there were 5 representatives who gave presentations.
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Jagadeesh Varma Nallaparaju „Mechanochemical Birch Reduction with Low Reactive Alkaline Earth Metals“
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Jevgenija Martõnova „Powder XRD as a Useful Tool“
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Tatsiana Nikonovich „Mechanochemical C-N Bond Forming Reactions and Their Use in Pharmaceutical Synthesis“
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Tatsiana Jarg „HPLC-MS Analysis of Hemicucurbit[8]urils and Their Host-Guest Studies“
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Thi Thanh Ngan Nguyen „Synthesis of Hemicucurbiturils by Mechanochemistry and Derivatized Silica Gel for HPLC Column Development“
10th of October 2023:
On Teacher's Day, faculty members were recognized, and our Riina Aava was awarded the title of the most inclusive teacher of the Faculty of Science.
2nd of October 2023:
TalTech News highlighted our work! https://taltech.ee/en/news/researchers-school-science-taltech-revived-method-abandoned-century-ago-why
29th of September 2023:
Our group, together with the Catalysis and Industrial Chemistry groups, organized a "Herb Pigment Extraction" workshop for the Night of Scientists.
28th of September 2023:
EurekaAlert! Highlighted our work on mechanochemical Barbier reaction: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1003103
On the photo: J. V. Nallaparaju, D. Merzhyievskyi, T. Nikonovich, T. Jarg, D. G. Kananovich, R. Aav and a key device used in their study – a shaker mill
20th of December 2021:
Today, we made gingerbread cookies in our annual chemistry department gingerbread baking
1st of Autust 2023:
Exciting update: Our recent work on the mechanochemical Barbier reaction has been featured on one of the covers of Angewandte Chemie!
1st and 2nd of June 2023:
Group summer seminar at Lepiku. Group members gave presentations, and Dr. Irina Osadchuk and Dr. Tatsiana Burankova, from outside the group, also gave presentations.
18th and 19th of May 2023:
Taltech Chemistry department held a two-day Chemistry PhD conference. From our group there were 4 representatives who gave presentations.
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Elina Suut-Tuule „Synthesis of Pseudo-Enantiomeric Hemicucurbiturils by Mechanochemistry“
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Nele Konrad „Hexakis(Zn-Tetraphenylporphyrin)-Biotin-L-Sulfoxide[6]uril: a Hexapod Cavitand for Recognition of Nanosized Objects“
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Marko Šakarašvili „Chiral Recognition by Solid-State Hemicucurbituril-Porphyrin Assemblies“
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Mari-Liis Brük „Photocatalytic Sulfide Oxidation with Hemicucrbituril-Porphyrin Derivatives“ kas esines 2x järjest?
27th and 28th of October 2022:
Taltech Chemistry department held a two-day Chemistry PhD conference. From our group there were 6 representatives who gave presentations.
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Jagadeesh Varma Nallaparaju „Mechanochemical Barbier-Type Grignard Reactions of Organic Halides“
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Thi Thanh Ngan Nguyen „Exploring Synthetic Route to New Chiral Monomers of Hemicucurbiturils“
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Tatsiana Shalima „HPLC-MS Analysis and Binding Studies of New Mono-Functionalized Cyclohexanohemicucurbit[8]uril“
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Jevgenija Martõnova „Progress on Formation and Properties of Metal-Organic Complexes and Networks“
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Mari-Liis Brük „Photocatalytic Sulfide Oxidation with Porphyrin Derivatives“ kas esines 2x järjest?
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Tatsiana Dalidovich „Mechanochemical C–N Bond Forming Reactions in The Synthesis of Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients“
20th of June 2022:
The group's summer seminar took place in Pärnu. All group members gave presentations on their research. As part of the entertainment program, we went sailing and explored the beautiful views of Pärnu Bay.
22nd of February 2022:
At the Republic Day ceremony, Riina Aav, Associate Professor of the Institute of Chemistry and Biotechnology, was named the Best Teacher of the Faculty of Science for 2022.
16th of December 2021:
Day full of seminars started with joint seminar for Chemistry Department where talks were given by Yevgen Karpichev, Tiit Lukk, Tõnis Kanger, Margus Lopp and our group leader Riina Aav. All talks sparked discussions lasting for the whole day.
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Later that day, Tatsiana Shalima talked about her recent advancements in analytical chemistry in presentation about "Screening Approach to Mechanochemical Synthesis of Macrocycles"
9th of December 2021:
Doctoral seminars continued with presentation delivered by Jagadeesh Varma Nallaparaju as he spoke about "Mechanochemical mediated Barbier reactions"
1st-2nd of December 2021:
Our group went to Rakvere to have a group seminar and joyous time together. Exciting discussions were held and we got underground tour in Estonian Mining Museum.
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Our collaborator from University of Jyväskylä, Kari Rissanen, also gave a talk on the topic of "Halogen(I) Supramolecular Chemistry, revisited!“
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Kari Rissanen is a full professor and Head of the Organic Chemistry Laboratory. He has laid the foundation to the Supramolecular Chemistry in Finland. Rissanen is a world-known expert on X-ray crystallography of supramolecular structures, weak intermolecular interactions and new methodology in crystallography.
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18th of November 2021:
Tatsiana Dalidovich gave thought-provoking presentation on her work "Mechanochemical Nucleophilic Substitution of Alcohols via Isouronium Intermediates"
11th of November 2021:
XIII SCIENCE CONFERENCE OF THE SCHOOL OF SCIENCE was held in the lecture hall Venus of the Cybernetics Building.
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The conference started with the opening speech by Rector Tiit Land.
Presentations:
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"Optical spectroscopy of new 2D and 3D semiconductors" by National Research Award 2021 laureates Prof. Maarja Grossberg and Prof. Jüri Krustok
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"Mechanisms of neuronal activity-regulated gene expression” by National Research Award 2020 laureate Prof. Tõnis Timmusk
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"Green skills and green competences in future work perspective" by Dr. Helen Sooväli-Sepping, Vice-Rector for Green Transition
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“Critical metals from low-grade future resources” by Dr. Rutt Hints, researcher at the Department of Geology
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"Extreme winter of 2020 in the Baltic Sea region” by Prof. Urmas Raudsepp, Department of Marine Systems
22nd of October 2021:
Doctoral students from DEPARTMENT OF CHEMISTRY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY were kindly invited to attend the social event where Head of study programme Maria Cecilia Sarmiento Guerin and Acting Director of the Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology Pirjo Spuul talked about different possibilities of doctoral schools and went over study programme to discuss the subjects and get valuable feedback.
14th of October 2021:
Kristjan Siilak presented his recent work in doctoral seminar sparking a nice discussion on the topics of "Anion Binding of Biotinuril Derivatives"
10th October 2021:
Doctoral seminar presentations were continued by Marko Šakarašvili, who presented fascinating results on the topic of "Bis-Zn(II) porphyrin is sensitive to difference in the size of hemicucurbiturils"
24th of September 2020:
We hosted annual Researchers' Night Festival in Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology building.
Different chemistry hands-on workshops "Food = Chemistry"
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Viisime läbi Loodusteaduste majas Teadlaste Öö festivali raames läbi töötoa "Toit = Keemia"
Töötoas sai iga teadushuviline teha 4 katset:
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Pipardame koos
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Jõuline tsitrus
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Kullatud suhkur
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Teeme ise toiduvärvi
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23th September 2021:
Our PhD student Nele Konrad was the first one from our group to present her latest results at doctoral seminar. She gave a talk regarding her latest results ""Thiourea organocatalysts' (chir)optical sensing by zinc porphyrins. Progress on hexa zinc porphyrins".
7th-8th September 2021:
Our PhD students Kamini Mishra, Kristjan Siilak, Nele Konrad and Marko Šakarašvili attended the annual summer school held by the Graduate School of Functional materials and Technologiest (GSFMT) in Pärnu, Estonia. Prof. Riina Aav gave an exciting talk about "Directed self-organization of small organic molecules: how to follow and apply it in environmentally benign way"
14th-15th June 2021:
Our group members Kristjan Siilak, Tatsiana Dalidovich, Jevgenija Martõnova, Tatsiana Shalima, Kamini Mishra and Jagadeesh Varma Nallaparaju visited to take part in TÜ ASTRA project PER ASPERA “Institutional Development Program for 2016-2022” GRADUATE SCHOOL OF FUNCTIONAL MATERIALS AND TECHNOLOGIES (GSFMT).
Kristjan, Tatsiana D., Jevgenija, Tatsiana S. and Jagadeesh presented posters and gave small oral presentations and Kamini gave enticing talk about "Chiral hemicucurbit[n]urils, their synthesis, post functionalization and application".
These two days were filled with interesting oral presentations, discussions and our group members were noticed and made new useful connections.
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11th-12th June 2021:
Our group went out of office to enjoy nice and warm summer days in Särghaua õppekeskus. We were given nice tour on the grounds and ended first day with tasty meal. Next day continued with visiting C.R. Jakobsoni Talumuuseum and Mukri bog to load our batteries to continue pursuing new interesting scientific results.
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9th of June 2021:
Congratulations - Rauno defended his bachelor thesis with mark "Excellent"!
His thesis title: Uue kiraalse pürrolidiin-3,4-diamiini derivaadi süntees (Synthesis of new chiral pyrrolidin-3,4-diamine derivative)
April 2021:
After a year-long pandemic delay, we were happy to host the first visiting PhD student, Matvey Horetski from Belarusian State University. Matvey's three months-long mission is now completed, with valuable results obtained by him in the field of porphyrin-based sensors and fluorescent dyes
9th of April 2021:
Anna Cowart defended her doctoral thesis, and is now Anna Cowart, PhD! We congratulate her and wish her all the best in the up-coming challenges.
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18th of March 2021:
Anna Cowart (Peterson) gave her first insight into her doctoral thesis giving a presentation about "An Investigation of Noncovalently Bound Supramolecular Systems Through Case Studies of Oxacalixarenes and Iodo-triazoles".
Also, Jagadeesh Varma Nallaparaju presented everyone his latest work regarding "Mechanochemical Organic Synthesis"
18th of February 2021:
After relaxing and fun day on the hills, we continued with doctoral seminars, where Marko Šakarašvili presented his latest results "Induced chirality in solid state and its application in sensing".
On the same day, also Lachinkhanim Huseynli (sup. Kristel Vene, Riina Aav) gave an enticing talk about her work "Determining and controlling flavor-active compounds in food".
16th of February 2021:
Fresh air and good company keeps you happy and healthy - our group celebrated Fastelavn (Vastlapäev)! We had a great time sledging down the hills and eating semlas with warm tea to keep us fresh and satisfied.
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11th of February 2021:
Doctoral seminars continued with presentation delivered by Jevgenija Martõnova as she spoke about "Molecular Structure Determination in Solid State"
28th of January 2021:
Doctoral seminars of Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology resumed after Christmas vacation with Kristjan Siilak taking about his work "Anion binding of biotinuril derivatives"
22nd of January 2021:
Tatsiana Dalidovich spoke at COST seminar regarding her studies of hemicucurbuturils functinalisation by milling and extrusion done in TalTech and Bradford University.
8th of January 2021:
Our loved group member Mari-Liis Ludvig is going on maternity leave - day filled with good cake, laughter and best wishes for soon-to-be-mother. We are all waiting for promised cake Thursdays and looking forward to meeting a new member of your family!
18th of December 2020:
Whole group came together for an end-of-year seminar in webinar form. New format allowed us to catch up and discuss the matters with our group members who are not currently in the same country. We reviewed all the work that had been done during the year and discussed our future plans for achieving new intriguing and publishable results.
17th of December 2020:
Mari-Liis Ludvig presented her recent work in doctoral seminar sparking a nice discussion on the topics of "Studies of azobenzene and pyridine containing macrocycles"
10th of December 2020:
Nele Konrad gave an exciting talk on her recent findings regarding to porphyrins - "Binding studies to zinc porphyrin derivatives"
13th of November 2020:
INITIO webinar "INovative chemIcal sensors for enanTioselective detectIon of chiral pOllutants". Two of our group members Dr. Dzmitry Kananovich and Dr. Lukaš Ustrnul delivered a talk on their latest results.
Dzmitry Kananovich : Synthesis of new host molecules
Lukaš Ustrnul : Supramolecular studies of host molecules
October 2020:
Jagadeesh Varma Nallaparaju (sup. Riina Aav and Dzmitry Kananovich) started his PhD in our group - looking forward to his new findings in Mechanochemical Organic Synthesis!
25th of September 2020:
We hosted annual Researchers' Night Festival in Department of Chemistry and Biotechnology building.
Different chemistry hands-on workshops "World of Molecules"
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Viisime läbi Loodusteaduste majas Teadlaste Öö festivali raames läbi töötoa "Molekulide maailm"
Töötoas sai iga teadushuviline teha 5 katset:
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Puuviljade kättemaks
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Keemiline foorilüliti
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Teeme ise üht vanimat värvi (DIY)
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Molekulide tants värskes õhus
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CSI: Jäljed
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24th of September 2020:
Tatsiana Dalidovich gave presentation on her work "Mechanochemical Synthesis of Amides with Uronium-Based Coupling Reagents, a Method for Hexa-amidation of Biotin[6]uril"
17th of September 2020:
Tatsiana Shalima presented her recent findings concerning her work "HPLC and MS analysis of biotin[6]uril derivatives and more"
10th of September 2020:
Lukaš gave an exiting presentation in department seminar for Chemistry PhD students.
1th of September 2020:
Jevgenija Martõnova (sup. Riina Aav and Kari Rissanen), Marko Šakarašvili and Kristjan Siilak (sup. Lukaš Ustrnul and Riina Aav) and Lachinkhanim Huseynli (sup Kristel Vene and Riina Aav) started their PhD studies with us - waiting forward for their discoveries! Elina Suut started her master studies with us - good luck!
28th of August 2020:
Congratulations for Dzmitry for leading his PhD student Gabor Zoltan Elek (Supervisors: Margus Lopp and Dzmitry Kananovich) to outstanding PhD thesis defence!
28th of August 2020:
Jenni Ilmarinen, a visiting student form Helsinki University, finished her one month stay in a group and resented her interesting results.
23rd of August 2020:
Our group members participated in solidarity chain to support Belarusian people fighting for democracy in their country. It was held on the anniversary of Baltic Way which happened in 1989.
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12th of August 2020:
Congratulations - Kristina defended her master thesis with mark "Good"!
Her thesis title: Tsükloheksaanohemikukurbituriilide kompleksid orgaanilistes lahustites (Cyclohexylhemicucurbituril complexes in organic solvents)
3rd to 4th of July 2020:
Our group had a summer seminar in Hiiumaa, where we summed up our recent achievements. We had two days full of inspiring discussions in a pleasant environment. Among other things, we also explored and enjoyed fascinating landscapes of Estonia's second biggest island. For some group members, it was the first and to all of us a very memorable visit.
27th of July 2020:
Congratulations - Lukaš received highly competitive Estonian Research Council Mobilitas+ post-doctoral research grant for development of innovative sensing for bioactive chiral compounds via supramolecular recognition based on hemicucurbituril-porphyrin system
11th of June 2020:
Congratulations - Elina defended her bachelor thesis with mark "Excellent"!
Her thesis title: Mehhanokeemiline hemikukurbituriilide süntees (Mechanochemical synthesis of hemicucurbiturils)
8th of June 2020:
Happy birthday, Lukaš!
2nd of June 2020:
Congratulations - Jevgenija defended her master thesis with mark "Excellent"!
Her thesis title: Koobalti sisaldava metall-orgaanilise võrgustiku rakendamine kristallilise käsnana (Application of cobalt-containing metal-organic framework as crystalline sponge)
2nd of June 2020:
Congratulations - Marko defended his master thesis with mark "Excellent"!
His thesis title: Chiral hemicucurbituril-Zn-porphyrin complexes and their application in sensing
